When Love & Hate Collide
by phoward
Summary: Gertie transferred to Shermer midway thru the school year after being expelled from her old school. As her bad luck would go, Vice Principal Vernon gives her Saturday detention on her fist day. She expected to serve it with her new smoking buddy Bender, but fate had other plans when the school brain, athlete, princess, and basket case joins the criminal and the rebel in detention.
1. The New Girl

**When Love & Hate Collide**

***Author's Note***

**So, I watched this movie after so many years (like a good decade gasp) of not seeing it and I forgot how much I loved it and Bender (haha…). Then I opened up my word doc file to write for my other stories, but was struck with an idea for a Breakfast Club story and viola this was born.**

**Anyways, hope you guys like this. This is a Bender/OC story with (of course) the side pairing of Bender/Claire (which is more of an on and off thing). Bender/OC is endgame but of course if you read my stuff you know I like drama and Bender/Clair is gonna be that drama.**

**The OC Gertrude 'Gertie' Hatfield's face claim is Rose Leslie. (She is a descendent of my OC Nova Landon and Cap Hatfield from my story Surviving With The Devil's Son but you don't have to read that for this story since there's no cross over or anything. Just saying…)**

* * *

**The New Girl**

**Gertie POV:**

Being the new kid was hard, but top that off with being transferred right smack dap in the middle of the school year right before spring break made hard turn into impossible. Eh, I would get expelled from my school in Mate Creek, West Virginia and get shipped to the middle of nowhere Midwest town of Shermer, Illinois by my parents to live with my widower grandpa (who only lives in Shermer cause it's where granny was from and she wanted to go back to her childhood hometown to enjoy her last years and all that). Dad's given up on me and mom's quote un quote 'Heartbroken at how bad and rebellious I turned out.'. Eh, at least Grandpa hasn't given up on me. I mean if he didn't intervene and offer to take me in when my dad was flipping out on the phone with him, I'd be off in military school right now being Cadet Hatfield.

"Don't worry, kid, your first day'll be fine." Grandpa assured me as he tossed his cigarette butt out the cracked window. God, just the smell of smoke made my mouth water, but I couldn't smoke around him cause he'd blow a gasket. Yea, he was a firm believer that girls shouldn't smoke and I didn't want a lecture from him.

"I'm not worried, grandpa, but thanks." I told him, tearing my eyes off of the buildings lining the road in order to give grandpa a quick looked and a small line of a forced smile.

"Now, remember be nice and try to make some new friends. This is supposed to be a fresh start for you."

"I know, but I'm always nice."

"Sure, ya are, Gertie…" He sarcastically smirked at me while shaking his head and rolling his eyes. "Stupid lil shit, watch where you're walkin'!" Grandpa yelled at some dude, who looked like a hobo huddled in a worn-out grey trench coat with a red scarf framed around his neck, as he just walked out right in front of our old Chevy truck as we pulled up to the school. And he tells me to be nice… As soon as the tires stopped my grandpa looked at me and said, "Stay under the radar or your next stop's military school."

"Okay." I simply said while opening up my door.

As I got out of the car I hear my grandpa's deep smoker's voice give me the lecture of, "I mean it, Gertie. If you get into trouble here your dad'll definitely send you off and trust me you don't want that."

"I know, grandpa." I told him right before shutting the passenger's door.

As I took my first steps onto the sidewalk of the large hellhole known as Shermer High I heard my grandpa's truck off. I let out a heavy sigh and tightened my grip on my bag as I made my way up the stairs that led to the doors of the school. Well, hopefully I can stay out of trouble and get thru the rest of the school year.

* * *

Homeroom is a stupid thing really, just sitting in class for a good 5 minutes while announcements are played over the intercom. My homeroom was the Spanish class and of course the teacher, Mrs. Ramirez, had an accent and dropped the d at the end of my name (Hatfield). Oh, at least I don't have to take her class since I did my required language back in my old school. I was zoning out as some chipper sounding girl (most likely a prep) made the announcements over the intercom.

"_Don't forget that prom is only 2 months away. Ask that special someone now and buy your tickets before they get sold out." _Who is this announcement chick kidding? The prom tickets won't be all sold out. As long as somebody has the money to spend they'll get a ticket, it's only for the Juniors and Seniors, not like the entire damn school's attending the dance.

I half listened to the rest of the announcements, not giving a shit about it since it wasn't like I was going to be in Shermer High that long. I was a senior after all…

Once the bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom, I rushed out of the room with the other students to join the crowd in the hall. People were scurrying about to their classes as I scanned the schedule I was holding in my hand. Aha, my first class was history on the second floor in room 206. Quickly, I found my way to the staircase and up to the second floor.

I was the last student to enter the history class. I looked around the room, searching for an empty seat, as I slowly walked further into the room. My eyes landed on an open desk near the middle of the rows of desks. A small and (for a lack of a better word) dorky blonde guy was sitting next to the empty desk as I walked over to it. Hearing me approach the empty desk, the boy turned his head and looked at me. As I placed my bag onto my desk, he gave me a slightly wide-eyed look while squeaking out, "Uh, you look cool for a new kid."

Knowing he was referring to my leather jacket (a gift from my ex and when I say gift, I just mean I never gave it back after we split) I just took my seat while simply telling him, "Thanks."

"I'm Brian, Brian Johnson." The blonde boy, who was a bit scrawny, gave me a friendly smile before going on to tell me, "You're going to love this history class."

"That's good. Oh, I'm Gertie by the way." I politely told the boy back while purposely omitting my last name since I didn't want the honor student to figure out that I was descended from a bunch of blood thirsty back hills West Virginian hillbillies.

Before Brian could say a word some jock (I knew he was a jock by his blue letterman jacket he had on) and a preppy girl wearing a pink dress that most likely cost more than my brother's truck payment back home walked up to me from their desks near the front.

As soon as they reached me the preppy redhead introduced herself with, "Oh, I'm Claire." A smile, a forced and fake one, crossed over her lightly made up face as she told me, "I'm on the prom committee along with some other social clubs; since you're new you could join them to make some friends."

Dear god, this girl's attitude was as fake as her pearly white smile. I bet as soon as she sees me in the hall with her friends, she'll talk shit about me. It's what the it girls, the popular girls, do. She's probably just trying to play nice so I'll feel like somebody wants to be my friend and blab about myself so she can have a new juicy gossip topic for her friends. Yep, sorry Miss Preppy Pretty In Pink, that ain't gonna happen. Eh, on the other hand she could be trying to gain a new recruit for her group of mean girl bitches. I mean I do have that way of attracting everyone to try and befriend me, but I learned the hard way my freshman year that the popular kids are not to be trusted. They turned on each other; eat their own per say.

"I'm Andy." The jock told me before going on to say, "This class is-"

"Everyone, to your seats now." A man in a suit that looked very Saturday Night Fever like barked as soon as he walked into the room. Everyone who wasn't seated hurried up and sat down at a desk. "Well, since your teacher's out sick today and a substitute couldn't be reached guess who's going to be filling in as teacher for this class? That's right, this man here. Me, Vice Principal Vernon." Oh no, I was already getting the vibe that this guy was a douchebag... He looked at me while glancing at a paper in his hand. "Ah, there's a new transfer student here. Gertrude Hatfield."

"It's Gertie." I told him since I hated my first name. It was such an 1800s name…

Vernon scowled at me. "What? You getting sassy with me young lady?"

"No, Mr. Vernon, I'm just telling you that I go by Gertie not Gertrude." I honestly told him.

"I read your file and I know why you had to transfer here so if I were you, I'd be walking a in a straight line on the tight rope of no more chances." The vice principal barked at me, his voice venomus and threatening, as his eyes cut right into me as I simply sat in my desk. Everyone's eyes were darting between me and the vice principal, waiting on baited breath for what would transpire between us. I just nodded at the douchebag, hoping that he'd get off my case. "The lesson plan says you're suppose to learn about the Revolutionary War, but nobody really gives a crap about that in the real world. Read that part of the book and write an essay on it."

"But-" Brian began to softly protest only to get snapped at by Vernon and his harsh remark of, "No buts, I'm sure you of all the students here are capable of reading a lesson and writing an essay on it."

I raised my hand, earning me a dissmisive eyeroll from Vernon. Ignoring his disinterest, I announced, "Uh, I need a book."

"Miss Hatfield, one more outburst and you'll be spending your Saturday with me."

"I'm not having an outburst; I'm telling you that I need a book since I'm new."

Quickly coming to my aid, Brian blurted out, "She can share mine."

"No, this isn't a group assignment. No sharing books." Vernon snapped before going over the teacher's desk and taking a seat at it.

Great, looks like I'm going to be failing my first assignment unless I get off my ass and go to the back bookshelf to snag a book. Yea, getting yelled at for getting up is better then failing.

"Miss Hatfield, this is a classroom not a runway." Mr. Vernon told me, his voice hard and nasty, as he sat behind Mrs. Vetter's desk acting like he owned the damn thing.

"Well, since I needed a book, I reckon I had to turn into Christie Brinkley to get it." I sarcastically told Vernon, waving the large book in my hand up in the air for him to see as I walked the short path back to my desk.

Vernon quickly got up from the desk and marched over to me. Giving me a nasty snarl he spat haughtily, "Oh, you've got a smart mouth on you. Think you're being cool; that you're some hot shit. The real bitchin' new kid." With a dark smirk he told me, "Oh, I know all about you and I won't take any of your shit. Congratulations, you got yourself Saturday detention little missy."

What? Is this douche-nugget serious? I got detention for getting up to get a book and then making a sarcastic comment on why I did it? Oh god and I thought my old school was strict, hell it was a fucking walk in the park compared to this. Damnit, I would do something stupid to get my ass shipped to Hell err Shermer.

Grampa's gonna be so pissed bout my detention.

* * *

The rest of my morning was mundane as hell. I was actually beyond thankful whenever lunch rolled around. As was the usual with all cafeteria food the shit looked horrible and was overpriced. Hell, the hockey puck of a burger tasted horrible and the fries were limpy, greasy, and gross. Yea, eww. After picking at my lunch and eating enough to not starve for the rest of the day I trashed my food and left the cafeteria. I needed a smoke, badly. I had no idea where the smoking area was in this hell hole (at my old school in Mate Creek it was behind a brick wall across from the field) so I went with my gut and took off towards the fields.

Smoke wafted from underneath the bleachers and I knew I'd found the student smoking area. I made my way underneath the bleachers where a few boys that looked like stoners and metal heads were clustered at in a small group. As I went over to a beam away from the group of guys, I noticed that Mr. Hobo (who grandpa nearly ran over) was in the center of the burner dudes as if he was their blessed messiah or something. He looked like somebody that'd fuck you up if you looked at him the wrong way. You know, somebody that was the epitome of bad boy. At least he he wasn't in that hobo coat anymore, but had on a jean jacket. Eh, the ratty trench must be stuffed in his locker.

I didn't pay him or his group any mind as I took my pack of smokes out of my bag. I shoved a cig into my mouth, took my lighter out of my pack, and lit up before tossing my pack of Reds back into my bag. As I took my first drag, I felt a set of eyes on me. I turned my head slightly, letting smoke flow out of my mouth, only to see the bad ass hobo dude looking at me with a mix between intrigue and scrutiny in his brown eyes. I just arched a brow at him in a silent 'what?' gesture before taking another drag of my smoke. He just shrugged, his long dark brown hair brushing against the slightly popped collar of his jean jacket, and went back to smoking and bullshitting with his friends.

I was just staring idly at the field, from the slats of the bleachers I was standing under, and was nearly done with my smoke whenever a voice, slightly deep, asked me, "Ya get that at their concert?"

I arched a brow and looked over to see who was asking only to see Mr. Baddie Hobo giving me a tilted look, his eyes fixed on my Def Leppard shirt. Looking between my shirt and him I simply said, "Yea, saw them in Charleston with my ex."

"Cool." He nodded in approval, his burnout friends all noddin' too. "I'm Bender." He introduced himself, flicking some ashes onto the ground. Before taking another drag of his smoke he pointed to himself and his group of burnout friends. "You got good taste in music; can come over and smoke if you want." His friends all nodded their heads, looking a bit afraid to counter what their messiah of the bad ass stoners had said.

I wasn't sure why he wanted me to hang out with them, but I'm betting my ass it's cause of A. my leather jacket, B. my Def Leppard concert tee, and C. I'm smoking. Basically, I had that rebel girl thing going on and it must intrigue him. Eh, he better not try anything funny (like suggesting we hook up or something since he gave off that wham bam thank you mam type vibe) cause I don't feel like kneein' anybody in the balls today.

"Gertie.", I simply said, tossing my cigarette butt to the side as I made my way over to him and his friends right as the bell rang.

"Got shop, man." One guy, who looked like he could be the drummer from Motley Crue, told Bender before taking off.

"Got a study hall to sleep in." Another friend, who had greasy dirty blonde hair and a black Pink Floyd sweatshirt on, told Bender before tossing his smoke away and taking off.

Bender just looked at me and simply asked with a slight snarky undertone, "You taking off too, Cupcake?"

"Cupcake?..." Good lord he's one of those guys that gives out sweet sounding nicknames to be an annoying jackass. Rolling my eyes, I told him curtly, "Next class is gym; I don't feel like wearing short gym shorts and having jocks oogle my ass cause I'm the new girl."

"Fair 'nough." Bender tossed his cigarette butt on the ground.

"So, what kinda name's Bender?" I asked him as he leaned against the metal beam, pulling his pack of Reds out of his back pocket for a round of chain smokin'. God, either his parents were drunk off their ass when they named him or he got a nickname for being a binge drinker. Either way option's not that great…

"The surname of drunken kings of old." He said a bit dramatically with sarcasm oozing from his voice as he took a smoke from his pack.

"Ah, I get it. You're so badass that nobody uses the first name." I replied in a tone full of fake surprise and astonishment as he held his pack out to me lazily, offering me one. "Ah, how nice you're sharing." I said, maybe a bit too sarcastically, as I quickly took a cigarette from his pack.

He just shrugged, blowing off my comment and his gesture, and stuffed his pack into his pocket before lighting up his smoke and tossing me his lighter. As I lit up, he took his first drag. "You're new." Bender stated, not asked, as I tossed him back the lighter.

Nodding, I took my first drag. "Yep." I popped my tongue after exhaling my first lungful of smoke from my second cigarette.

"In the middle of the year. Oh, Cupcake, you've must've done something bad."

"Not bad, just stupid."

"Stupid how?" Bender asked, his brow rising curiously at me as he faked interest and concern. Yea, bet he just wanted to know what I did so he could rag me 'bout it. He seemed like the kinda guy that'd get under your skin and torment you to no end. God, he would be the only one showing me any social attention today. Prolly cause I smoke and he smokes, but still nobody but bad boy Bender was showing me the time of day.

"What're ya, the guidance counselor grillin' me?" I shot back sarcastically instead of giving him a straight forward answer while slightly flicking some ashes sailing to the ground.

"No, if I was Mr. Austin, I'd be telling you," Bender said before imitating the counselor's overly cheerful tone and making random head gestures while giving a fake speech of, "Now Gertie what you did in your old school was thoughtless and horrible. To succeed here at Shermer and in life you must apply yourself and surround yourself by positive peers." He rolled his dark brown eyes while going back to his normal tone and saying, "Blah blah blah fuckity fuck fuck fuck.", while making little puppet like motions with his hands.

"God, you sound just like that overly happy asshole. I got stuck talking to him the other day when I signed up for this hell hole and I wanted to smash my head against a filing cabinet or something to block out his bullshit lecture." I laughed, shaking my head at him before taking a drag off my smoke.

"I like your attitude, Cupcake." I didn't know if he was teasing me or not, but I don't think I gave a shit either way.

"Of course, you do, but nobody else does." Was my honest reply, which could be taken as either sincere or sarcastic by how I slightly shrugged while saying it.

"Aww, too bad. I guess people ain't living by sticks and stones may break my bones, but words'll never hurt me."

"Guess not." I shrugged, taking a large drag.

We fell into silence as we smoked underneath the bleachers. Once the bell rang, marking the end of the period, we tossed our butts on the ground and emerged out from underneath the bleachers. Without a word we parted ways. He headed towards the large building (that resembled a garage) that the shop class was held in while I headed towards the main building.

* * *

My last class of the day was art. I didn't mind it; in fact, I was actually pretty good at drawing and stuff. Whenever I walked into class, I noticed that blank canvases on small easels, paints, and brushes were set up at all of the tables. I saw that up front sat Andy Clark with one of his jock buddies, who was very large and had to be at least 250 pounds. He didn't say a word to me cause the large fat jock gave me a sneering look. Whatever. I just walked on by, looking for an empty table to sit at. I saw at the table all the way in the back was a girl in all black with her dark hair covering her face painting her canvas even tho the final class bell hadn't gone off yet. I doubt she even knew what the assignment was and was just painting for the hell of it. Um, that girl in all black gave off a weird vibe. Yea, so not going near her.

I found an empty table near the back, but far enough way from the weirdo. I took my seat and just waited for other classmates to come in or for the final bell to ring as the art teacher, a woman that looked like some leftover '60s flower child, sat at the desk in the front of the room with her nose stuck in a renaissance art history book. One after another the last of my classmates trickled in and the bell rang.

The teacher, who my schedule had listed as Mrs. Miller, put her book down and stood in front of the class. "Class, today we'll be pai-" The teacher began to say until she was rudely interrupted by the sound of the door opening accompanied by heavy bootsteps filling the room. Mrs. Miller whipped her head around so fast that her hair swung around her shoulders so fast it might as well cause her whiplash. "Well, John Bender, it's so good of you to grace us with your presence today."

"Yea, well, I just couldn't pass up the chance to play with finger paints." Bender told our teacher as he strolled over to the empty seat next to me. Stopping in his tracks and spinning 'round on his heel he looked at Mrs. Miller and asked sarcastically, "Oh, wait, or are we finally painting a naked lady holding a bowl of fruit today?"

The flower child art teacher narrowed her green eyes at Bender while sternly telling him, "Please, find a seat John or I'll be forced to send you to Vice Principal Vernon for being late and disrupting class."

"I'll sit down, but only cause I think my new friend'll enjoy my company more then Vernon would on this lovely afternoon." Everyone turned around in their seats and set their eyes on Bender, curious to see who he was talking about when he said new friend. Well, everyone, but that weird girl was looking that is. Of course, I knew he was talking about me. Bender, after reaching my table, flopped down onto the empty stool next to me while smirking and asking a bit sarcastically, "Miss me, Cupcake?"

"Oh, you know I did. I mean I was just gonna die without seein' you; how did I ever survive without your grungy ass in my life?" I sarcastically told him, rolling my eyes once or twice for a dramatic effect.

Bender just gave me a smug like smirk before crossing his arms over his chest and looking at the art supplies like he wanted to make them burst into flames and disappear.

"Since spring is here, we're going to be painting flowers. Class, no painting is too much or too little so just let the muses guide your creativity." Mrs. Miller said in a bit of a light and airy tone before doing a slight spin and going back to her desk."

"I want what she's smokin'." I muttered under my breath. Yea, my art teacher was definitely a left over hippy.

Giving me a serious look, Bender told me, "You want some doobage I can hook you up."

"Oh, how wonderful, you're the candy man." I said, more to myself then to him even tho I know he heard me. Nodding, I told him, "I'll keep that in mind." Looking between him and his blank canvas, I asked, "Aren't you gonna paint?"

"Sure." He answered, picking up a paintbrush and dipping it into some black paint. He drew a line down the middle of his canvas before making little circles around the top of the line. "There, I painted the fucking flower." He told me, pointing to his bland picture before tossing the paintbrush onto the cloth covered table.

"Nice, you're a real Picaso." I sarcastically told him, brushing my light blue tipped paintbrush across my canvas in order to paint the entire thing so my floral scene would have a backdrop.

Bender, most likely out of pure boredom, began doing a balancing act with his stool by rocking it back and forth while gripping the table so he wouldn't bust his ass. I just ignored him and painted. I was no Monet, but at least I could paint enough to get pieces entered into my old school's art show exhibit my sophomore year. It's been a couple of years since I painted anything so I hoped my project turned out okay.

"Damn, Cupcake, you're a regular Bob Ross."

"Shut up."

* * *

"So, make any new friends?" Grandpa asked as soon as I shut the door after getting into the truck once my prison sentence um, I mean school day was over.

"I guess. There's this dude that talks to me, told me where to find him and his friends if I want to hang out." I told my grandpa as he pulled away from the school and got onto the main road.

"Ah, so is he nice?" He asked, giving me a slight look before moving his attention back to the road.

"He's the lil shit you almost ran over this morning, so reckon he's a jackass." I chuckled as I looked out the window, watching said lil shit strolling down the sidewalk in a lazily pace. Yea, he must not be in too much of a rush to go home with how slow he's walking.

"I'm sure he's not that bad once you get to know him." I just arched my brow at my grandpa. He chuckled at me before making the remark of, "I mean everyone was scared to hell and back of my grandpa and I thought he was a pleasant person."

I shook my head and rolled my cornflower blue eyes before scoffing, "Everyone was scared of your Grandpa Cap cause he could blow a hole in your head from half a mile away." I snapped my fingers a few times before quickly adding in, "Oh not to mention he was apart of that famous feud."

"That's not the point. What I'm saying is, if you want to hang out with the lil shit then go ahead and do it." He said as we passed by the local grocery store. His nice speech ended with the blunt, but honest, remark of, "You're the new kid; can't be too picky on the friends you get."

"Oh, geez, thanks grandpa." I lightly scoffed, shaking my head and causing my copper hair to lightly fan around my shoulders a bit messily.

"You're welcome." Grandpa smirked at me. Stopping at a red light, he turned to me and asked, "So, other than making a sorta friend how was your day?"

Oh shit… I bit my lip, staring at the red light, before muttering, "I got Saturday detention."

Grandpa's head snapped so fast it almost spun off his shoulders. His icy blue eyes were full of a mix between curiosity and shock as he asked, "What? It was your first day, how did that happen?"

"I needed a history book, the sub who's also the vice principal ignored my request for one, so I walked to the bookshelf and grabbed one and got detention for getting out of my seat." I explained, never once taking my eyes off of the redlight. I was too afraid that I'd see either disappointment or anger in my grandpa's icy blue eyes.

"That vice principal sounds like a peckerwood." My grandpa remarked as the light turned green, causing him to press the gas and make the car take off.

Oh, thank god he's not mad or disappointed at me, but blames that douche Vernon. "He is, grandpa."

"Ah, well, I s'pose you're not in trouble for the Saturday detention since it wasn't you're fault per say, but make sure it doesn't happen again. I don't want to see you shipped off to military school."

"I know, grandpa." I told him, a bit monotoned too, as he turned onto the side street that we lived on.

As we drove down the street, inching towards our house, my grandpa told me in the tone he used when he was making a secret pact with me when I was little, "We're not telling your parents 'bout the detention if they call later tonight to how your day went. Hear me, sweetheart?"

"Yep, I hear ya grandpa." I nodded as he pulled into our driveway. The driveway that was right in front of a modest two-story house with faded white paint and an old fading grey-blue roof.

Silently, we got out of the truck and headed to the small front porch. Grandpa opened the front door and we walked right in. He went to the kitchen to make us dinner while I trudged upstairs to my room to read _To Kill A Mockingbird _for English. I had already read it last year, but it was my favorite book and I had a personal copy so I didn't mind reading it. Hell, I even had a VHS of the movie too. Since grandpa got me a tv and VCR set up for me in my room maybe I'll watch my tape tonight.

God, I need to look for a job so I can make some money. I mean I can't ask grandpa for too much money since he's on a fixed income (Social Security). And I don't think I'd feel right buying weed fom Bender with my grandpa's money either. Maybe someday this week after school I'll check in with some local diners and stuff; see if they need somebody to wait tables.

Shaking my head to clear my mind, I entered my room and dropped my bag onto the small desk by the door. I took my jacket off and flung it over my chair as I heard my grandpa's deep smoker's voice shout from the kitchen downstairs, "We're having porkchops tonight, Gertie!"

"Okay, grandpa!" I simply called back while going over to the bookshelf next to the desk. I grabbed my book and then went over to my bed that was across the room. I sat down on the blue bedspread, crossing my legs Indian style, and opened up my book. I had three chapters to read, but I didn't mind. I actually liked to read, which might shock people since I don't look like the smart or nerdy type.

_When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. _I began to read, knowing I'd get lost in my favorite book and most likely read half of it by time dinner was ready.

* * *

**AN:**

**Hope you guys liked this. In time what Gertie did to be expelled will be revealed (ya know during the Saturday detention). So, Gertie's only friend (well smoking associate) so far is Bender. Lucky her, right.**


	2. School Night Party

***Author's Note***

**I've decided that Gertie's Grandpa aka Grandpa Hatfield will have the face claim of Donald Sutherland.**

* * *

**School Night Party**

**Gertie POV:**

Sadly, the only person that actually talked to me at school was Bender. Everyone else that had introduced themselves on Monday (Brian, Andy, and Claire) had ignored me. Oh hell, I was even hearing some of the popular bitches whispering and cackling behind my back 'bout how I was too pretty to be a burnout along with some rumors and theories 'bout how and why I got expelled from my old school. The jocks, well, they liked to oogle my ass. I threatened to nut one in gym and he laughed at me til I gave him a sinister smirk that made his laughter die. Creeper jock left me alone after that. The smart nerdy kids all looked at me warily whenever I passed by them (prolly cause Brian told them I was a Hatfield and they all were scared I had a mean streak cause of my family's past involvement in one of the bloodiest feuds in American History).

But Bender surprised me by talking to me in the hallways, not just under the bleachers at lunch for a smoke break. Turns out his locker, which had a noose and a threat of '_Open this locker and you die, Fag!' _on it, wasn't far from mine. Bender wasn't going out of his way to be my best fucking friend forever, but he wasn't ignoring me either. Hell, it was actually quite the opposite since he seemed to get his jollies off by annoying me with sarcastic quips.

Okay, well, it's only Thursday, but I think I've figured out how my friendship circle and social scene was gonna go. Bad ass Bender and the burners seemed to be what I was gonna be spending my last couple of months of my high school career with. I mean, like my grandpa said, I can't be picky 'bout my friends since I was new. Whatever, I always seemed to gravitate towards having more guy friends then girls anyway so me falling easily into Bender's group wasn't that much of a shock to me. I mean we had things in common (same taste in music and we smoked both cigs and weed so…).

The lunch bell had just gone off a few minutes ago, which is why I was at my locker stuffing my books into it. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed John was at his locker, digging something out of it. I just shrugged and shoved my books into my locker. He wasn't an honor student; just did enough to slide on by and snag his diploma in late May or early June (whenever Shermer had graduation scheduled). I was about to put my hand on my locker door to close it whenever a shadow appeared from behind me followed by a black biker glove covered hand slamming my locker shut.

"What the fuck, Bender?" I asked, spinning on my heel to give him an arched brow look. I wasn't mad that he shut my locker, just surprised.

"Come on, Cupcake, we're gonna have a doobage sesh in Snake's car." He told me, wrapping an arm over my shoulder and leading us away from the lockers.

"Sounds good to me." I simply told him as he took his arm off of my shoulders as we began to walk down the hall.

"You know, I like how you decorated your locker."

"Of course, you do." Tuesday morning, before the school officially started, I taped some music pictures and labels on my locker door. Since Bender and I shared the same taste in music it was a no brainer that he liked the decorations. "You'd hate the chick next to me's locker. Has a big Blondie poster in it."

Bender made a disgusted face as we turned down a hall that led to the one needed to reach the main doors of the school. Yea, I knew he'd react that way to the Blondie remark. Giving me a quick look, he stated, "If you liked Blondie, I wouldn't be inviting you to my doobage sesh." I don't think he was joking, but was actually being serious.

"Good thing I don't; wouldn't want to be deprived of getting blazed with you." I shot back as we walked down the main hall with the double doors in our viewpoint. I reckon my remark could be taken either seriously or sarcastically depending on how you looked at it. I didn't know how Bender took it since all he did was give me a slight head tilt for a reply.

Silently we made our way to the main doors and outside to the parking lot that was in front of the school. Quickly, we made our way down the endless stairs of Shermer High and down to the parking lot. Since I didn't know what Snake's car looked like I was glad that Bender was leading the way. As we weaved in and out of the parking lot, I noticed a BMW pulling out and quickly speeding thru parking lot. I could've sworn that the redhead driving looked like that pink preppy girl, Claire. Bender didn't seem to notice and nearly got run over and honked at. "Eat my shorts!" Bender yelled at the BMW while flipping a bird. Yea, he's such a nice guy…

"Bender, bring your shit?" Snake asked as we reached his red clunker.

"Yea, now let's have a doobage sesh."

Snake just nodded his head before opening up his door and flipping his chair up so that a greasy dirty blonde named Erik could get into the car. The guy that reminded me of Motley Crue's drummer was named Bobby and he opened up the passenger's door and flipped the seat up so that Bender and me could slip into the back.

"After you, Cupcake." Bender told me with a slight hand gesture.

I didn't say a word, just climbed into the backseat of the car. I wasn't even settled good yet in the backseat whenever Bender got in and sat next to me. Bobby quickly pushed his chair back, sat in it, and closed the passenger's door. Bender quickly produced a large bag of weed out of his pocket while Snake popped open his glove box. "Here, man." Snake said while passing some rolling papers into to back seat.

Bender slightly leaned over me and snatched the papers. I noticed that he had a grey streak in his dark brown hair. It was in front, framing the right side of his face. Damn, his home life must be rough to be having premature grey at 18 (I think he was 18, but I wasn't really sure since I didn't know his birthday.). I adverted my eyes from the lone grey strand since I didn't want to embarase him or offend him by staring at it. I decided to play it off like I never even noticed it. After leaning back in his seat, Bender looked at me and said, "Everyone rolls their own. Can you handle that, Cupcake?"

"I can handle that just fine, Bender." I told him, taking the sheet of paper he was holding out to me.

Bender just nodded his head at me before tossing a piece of paper at Erik.

"I don't think she'd be hanging with us if she couldn't roll a joint." Snake told Bender, earning him an eye roll from the man next to me as said man took a pinch of pot out of his bag before passing it over to me.

"Rolling a good joint's a very important life skill, which is why my brother taught me it when I was a freshman." I remarked, to no one in particular, while taking the bag from Bender and getting some weed out of it. "Oh, and the reason I'm even here hanging out is cause Bender boy here's the only one that seems to give me the time of day in this hell hole." I honestly told the guys, nodding my copper hair covered head at Bender as he was rolling his joint, while passing the bag over to Erik.

"Can't say I'm surprised these fucking dildos here are ignoring you, Cupcake." Bender shrugged, lighting up his joint, as I started rolling mine while Erik tossed the bag of weed into the front seat; making it land on the console between Snake and Bob's seats.

"Yea, your jacket's a dead give way that you're not going to be making any friends with the nice kids." Snake chuckled, grabbing the bag off the console before Bob could snag it.

I lit up my joint and took my first puff off it before remarking with a slight smirk, "Who wants to befriend the nice kids when the bad ones got the good dope."

Bob let out a laugh as he snatched the bag of pot from Snake, who was starting to roll his joint. Erik just took a big hit of his joint and nodded while Bender just smirked at me and let a cloud of smoke billow out of his mouth and nostrils.

_**Near The End Of Lunch…**_

"So, my cousin told me there's a big party happening in Tinley Park tonight. Anyone wanna go?"

Bob and Erik just nodded their heads while Bender gave the answer of, "Sure I'm going. I can make money selling my doobage." Looking at me, since I was silently sitting like a bump on a log, Bender asked, "Ya down to party with us, Cupcake?"

"Sure." I answered, even tho it was a school night and I shouldn't be going out to party. I'd have to lie to my grandpa about why I was going out or I could always sneak out.

Looking at me via the rearview mirror, Snake asked, "I'm everyone's chauffer so where you staying at?"

Smoke wafted out of my mouth as I gave the simple answer of, "15 Middleton Ave."

"You're not far from me." Bender told me with a smirk. Before taking a hit off his joint, he told Snake, "Pick me up at her place instead of at the usual spot."

"Okay." Snake nodded, smoking his joint. "Be by round 8 so be on the curb. Tinley Park's a long ride and I don't wanna be late for this party."

"Man, it better be good to travel that far." Erik scoffed in a blazed tone before taking a hit.

"Why, where's Tinley Park at?" I asked curiously with a raised brow. Hey, I was new to Shermer and the Chicago metro area in general so I had no idea how far this town we were going was. I mean if a stoner's complaining then it's probably far. I just hope not too far.

Smoke blew out of Snake's mouth and nose, much like a chimney, as he flatly answered me with the remark of, "Clear across Cook county; border lining Will."

My cornflower blues went wide as I blurted out, "Shit, that's like an hour away."

"What, to far to go party with us?" Bender asked in a sneer, giving me a slightly pointed look.

"No, I'm going." I told him, wanting him to know that I wasn't going to flake out on the party plans. "Just didn't think I'd be stuck in a car with you jackasses for that long tho."

"Those three are jackasses." Bender pointed to his friends with his hand that was holding his roach. "I'm not tho." He smirked before taking one last hit off his roach.

"Of course." I sarcastically smiled, taking my last hit as the bell sounded out loudly on the school grounds marking the end of lunch.

* * *

The rest of my day at school was fine. After being picked up by my grandpa I did my homework, ate dinner, and then spent the short hours leading up to 8 in my room watching tv. Whenever it was 'bout 7:55 I made my way downstairs clad in my leather jacket with my bag slung over my shoulder. I decided to lie to my grandpa instead of sneaking out so I went into the living room, which was near the front entryway, and told him in a sweet informative tone, "Grandpa, I'm going out to study with my new friend."

"Okay, but remember you're going to school tomorrow hungover or not." Grandpa told me with a nod, not once taking his eyes off of his 25-inch color tv.

"Grandpa, I told you I'm going out to study." I innocently said, stressing the word study, since I didn't want my cover blown. I mean I didn't want him to know I was going to a party on a school night.

"At 8 o'clock at night? Sure, if you say so." Grandpa deeply chuckled. Cocking his head and giving me a cutting look with his icy blue eyes, as he sat in his easy chair waiting for _Magnuim P.I. _to come on, my grandpa told me in a know-it-all tone, "I wasn't born old ya know. You're going out somewhere with the lil shit, who might I add doesn't look like the type of boy that has study meets after dinner either."

My eyes widened as I stumbled out a squeaky, "Yea…and you're cool with it?"

"You're 18, Gertie. Grown and old 'nough to join the army if you wanted. I'm not your dad, I'm your grandpa, so it's not my job to watch you like a hawk. Just don't do anything stupid to make me call up your dad, understood?" I was speechless at hearing my grandpa say that. All I could do was stand and stare at him while slowly nodding my head. Damn, I was flabbergasted to say the least. Grandpa shook his head and chuckled, "Now go on before your lil shit friend wears out the sidewalk from pacing back and forth all night on it."

"What?"

"Your friend's outside pacing and waiting for you. He's been out there for 'bout 5 minutes now too."

"Grandpa, were you snoopin' out the window?" I asked incredulously as I placed a hand on my hip and furrowed my brows slightly.

"What? He didn't see me." Grandpa said, trying to feign innocence while arching a white brow up at me. Shrugging, he grabbed his pack of smokes off his side table and pointed to the front window while saying, "Besides, I always snoop outside whenever the cat slips her head 'round the curtain and makes a little hole."

I just shook my head at him. "Bye, grandpa, I'm going now."

"Remember, you're going to school tomorrow hung over or not." He reminded me as he took a cig out of his pack and stuck it into the side of his mouth.

"I know, grandpa." I sighed, trying not to sound annoyed, before leaving the living room and making my way to the front door.

As soon as I walked out onto the front porch, I saw that my grandpa was right, Bender was pacing up and down our sidewalk. He only stopped pacing when he heard me walking down the porch steps. He looked at me from over his shoulder, watching me make my way over to his side. As soon as I came to a stop next to him, he took a drag off his cigarette and told me, "You're late, thought you were standing me up."

"I'm not late, it's just turning 8 now." I told Bender, rolling my eyes at him, as he tossed his cig butt onto the sideway. "Not my fault you got here early."

Before Bender could come up with a snarky retort Snake's red clunker barreled down the street and came to a screeching stop at the curb right in front of us. The passenger's door flung open and out popped Bob as loud rock music was heard blaring from the car's radio. "Get in, we've got a party to get to." Snake told us as Bob flipped the seat up, revealing the backseat and Erik, who was sitting in his usual spot behind the driver.

"After you, Cupcake." Bender teased, pointing to the car like he did early today in the school's parking lot.

I didn't say a word, just climbed into the back. Once Bender had gotten in and sat down next to me, squishing me between him and Erik, Bob flipped his seat back and sat down. Bob didn't even have his door shut good whenever Snake took off speeding down the road. Damn, this guy drives like a maniac.

"Dude, roll one up for us." Bob told Bender, looking at him via the mirror, as Snake took a sharp turn onto the main road.

"Only one, man." Bender said while pulling his large bag of weed out of his pocket. "I gotta make sure I have enough doobage to sell tonight." He remarked as Bob opened up the glovebox to grab a rolling paper.

"Dude, get my Scorpions tape out. We need something good to listen too on the long drive down the toll road." Snake told Bob right as the guy was getting ready to close the glovebox after getting a rolling paper and passing it over his shoulder to Bender.

"Wait, we gotta take a toll road? I thought we were using the highway." I blurted out, not really liking the idea that I might have to dig around my purse for change to give Snake to toss into the toll coin collector thing.

"Highway 294 is a toll road, Cupcake." Bender rolled his brown eyes at me as his fingers nimbly worked their magic at making a joint.

"Oh, I didn't know that." I told Bender as Snake shoved his Scorpions tape into his radio's cassette player.

Bender didn't say a word, just stuck the freshly rolled joint in his mouth and lit it. Erik quietly sat next to me, waiting for the game of puff puff pass to begin. As the musical intro of _Rock You Like A Hurricane _began to fill up the car Bender took the first hit of the group joint. He let out a small lungful of smoke before taking his second hit. As smoke wafted out of his mouth and nostrils, he passed me over the joint. As soon as I took it, Bender started banging his head to the beat of the music. Okay, actually all of us were head banging. After taking my two hits off the joint I passed it to Erik, who greedily stuck the joint in his mouth and inhaled.

So, while passing a doobie around and banging our heads to the Scorpions latest album, we rode to our party destination clear across the county.

* * *

The ride to some split-level home in Tinley Park felt like it took more then an hour, but whatever. The house party was in full swing when we arrived. Snaked parked on the curb by the house that had a front lawn full of numerous teens drinking beer. Yep, that's always a good marker of where the party is.

After we all scrambled out of the car, we made our way to the house. Most likely we wouldn't know anybody there (well Snake would know his cousin if he was there), but we didn't care since we just wanted to party. I mean nobody gave a shit about who was throwing the party, just the fact that there was tons of free beer and snack foods. A porchlight was on as we walked up to the front door of the house. It looked like a nice house, maybe a bit too nice to be having heavy metal parties… Snake entered the house first followed by Bob, then Erik, then me, and Bender. Oh my god, the party was really in full swing whenever we walked thru the door. By full swing I mean the living room (and the other rooms in the house too I bet) was crowded full of people drinking beer; some people were dancing to a power ballad that was loudly playing on the stereo too. Other people were sitting on chairs and couches blazing up. Hell, one guy was leaning against a doorway while sucking on the tail end of his roach.

"Snake, man, glad you guys could make it." I tall guy with a bronze mullet, which looked like a gift from the rock gods it was so big, said as he came up to us. Ah, bet this guy's Snake's cousin.

"Wouldn't miss a big party, cuz." Snake chuckled as his cousin was making eyes at me. Oh great, he noticed I'm new…

Mr. Mullet looked between me and Bender before remarking, "Who's your girl, Bender? Never seen her before."

"I'm Gertie." I told Snake's cousin my name before quickly adding in, "I'm new to Shermer."

"She seemed cool, I invited her to smoke with me." Bender added in, even tho he didn't have to, as he stood by my side in a lazy stance with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Ah, cool, cool." Snake's cousin nodded, his massive bronze mullet rocking back and forth on his head. "Beer's in the fridge." Snake's cousin, who I didn't know the name of, told us with a half high tone. "I'll go tell people to buy from ya, man." The guy told Bender, causing him to nod in approval. "Nice meeting ya, Gertie. Oh, I'm Brick by the way." Brick, Snake's cousin, told me with a sly smile before quickly taking off. Brick, Snake, what the hell is with their family? I really hope those are just nicknames cause if not…well…their parents must've dropped a lot of acid or something.

"I don't know what you guys are gonna do, but I'm gonna go do her." Erik said in a chuckle, pointing to a blonde wearing bright blue eyeshadow that was in a tight red mini dress that showed off her hourglass shape.

"Have fun, I'm grabbin' a beer from the kitchen." I shook my head at my greasy blonde friend before taking off for the kitchen, which was upstairs since the house was split level.

Bootsteps echoed right next to me as I made my way upstairs. I turned my head around subtly, only to see Bender by my side. He didn't say a word and neither did I since we both knew why he was walking upstairs with me. He wanted a beer, simple as that. Once we reached the top of the stairs we were in the kitchen, which was crowded with people.

"God, did Big Bird puke all over this place." I scoffed as my eyes took in the entirely yellow décor of the kitchen. When I say entirely yellow, I mean it. Everything from the walls to the floor to the cabinets and counters; hell, even the appliances were different bright shades of yellow. Even the goddamn sink was yellow. The sink!

"Better then Oscar The Grouch puking up the place." Bender sarcastically quipped as he headed over to the fridge to grab some beer.

I didn't say a word, just followed him over to the fridge. After opening the SMEG fridge, Bender grabbed a couple of cans of Coors. "Here, Cupcake." He tossed me a can before slamming the mustard colored fridge shut.

"Thanks." I told him, quickly catching my beer.

Bender just shrugged and popped his can open. He took a swig of his beer while I popped mine open. "I'm heading back downstairs, do whatever you want." Bender told me as I took a sip of my Coors. Oh, wasn't my new friend a peach? He knew I didn't know anyone, except for him and his crew, here and he was just taking off to go sell his shit. Hey, I know that's the reason he's going downstairs even if he didn't say so.

"Yea, I'll join you." I simply told him, getting into step with him as he walked over to the staircase. Bender just cocked his head slightly at me before taking another sip from his beer can. I felt like he was silently mocking me for going downstairs with him. "Hey, I don't know anybody here so that's why I'm going downstairs. Don't act like I'm going with you to keep ya from getting a piece of ass tonight or something. You can go do whatever you want to."

Bender just smirked at me as a low chuckle vibrated in the back of his throat. "You're a blunt one, Cupcake. Guess that's why we're hanging out."

"Yea, cause only a blunt chick can buddy it up with a sarcastic dude."

"Come on, let's go smoke while we for some assholes to ask about buying my doobage."

I just nodded my head and followed Bender as he walked around the main room of the first floor. He stopped when he reached a far corner. Bender leaned his shoulder nonchalantly against the orange and red floral wallpaper as he pulled his pack of smoke from his pocket. I just stood by him, staring at the crowd of party guests in the room, and pulled my own pack of Reds out of my bag. Silently, we stuck our cigarettes into our mouths and lit them with one hand while holding our beers with the other. As he tucked his pack back into his pocket, I dropped mine back into my bag.

Silently, we took our first drags off of our cigarettes and let the smoke blow and billow from our nostrils and mouths as we exhaled.

Without saying a word, we smoked and drank together. As Dio's _Rainbow In The Dark _loudly played from the stereo, filling up every room in the split level house no doubt, a tall gangly boy with straight black hair tucked behind his ear walked up to Bender. "Hey, you Bender? I heard you got weed, man." The guy remarked to Bender as he came to a stop in front of us.

Bender just nodded. Taking a drag of his smoke he told the potential buyer, "Yea, 5 bucks for a dime."

The boy quickly pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and grabbed some money to buy the weed with. Once Bender had the money in his hand, he gave the customer his dime bag and watched him take off to go smoke. Thus began Bender's night of being the candy man.

* * *

The party was loud and bitchin'. Totally worth going out on a school night for. We were half drunk (ok we were drunk) and high whenever we left. Hell, I had no idea what time it was when we left either. The ride down the desolate highway back to Shermer was long and endless. Once and a while a semi would pass by us, but other then that not many people were on the highway toll road with us. Rock music loudly blared out of the stereo as Snake drove the car (most likely weaving the car cause let's face it we were all drunk…). When we reached the toll stop by Shermer, Snake whipped his head 'round and barked in a slight slur, "Need some change, man."

Bender didn't say a word, just ignored Snake while taking a drag off his smoke. Bob was sleeping in the front passenger's seat, so I think that's the reason why Snake was asking us in the back for money. I let out a sigh while bending down to pick up my bag from its spot on the floor by my feet while Erik slightly stretched and began to dig a hand inside of his pocket. My cig dangled out of the corner of my mouth as I plopped my bag onto my lap. "Here." Erik placed some coins into Snake's awaiting hand before taking a drag off his smoke.

I stopped looking for my wallet in the bottom of the purse whenever Snake turned 'round in his seat and tossed the coins into the toll collection, causing the rail to lift up and free our car. I relaxed back in my seat and took a long drag off my cig as Snake drove off. "You guys up for breakfast at Ruby's to sober up with?"

"Yea." I nodded while Bob snored up front next to Snake, his dark hair pressed up against the window.

"I could use a black coffee." Bender shrugged, snubbing his cig butt on the side of the car's interior plastic covered frame.

"I got the munchies, bad." Was Erik's answer, which more or less was a yes to breakfast at Ruby's.

Snake just nodded and made the remark of, "Ruby's here we come.", as he got into the right lane that's merge of into the exit.

After driving off the exit, Snake drove us back into down town and pulled in front of a small railcar diner that was next to a car garage. The red neon sign in the front window read _Open_ as the large neon red sign on top of the roof flickered _Ruby's 24/7 Diner. _Dragging out asses, all of us got out of the car and trudged up to the front glass door of the diner. The door chime went off as Snake pulled the door open, causing the middle-aged waitress behind the counter to stop filing her nails and lift her head up to look at us. As we walked into the aisle, tiredly and half drunkenly dragging our feet, I noticed that we were the only ones inside the diner other then the waitress and the cook. "Take a seat anywhere you want." The waitress told us in a flippant and nasally tone.

"Looks like Miss Sunshine's on tonight." Bender sarcastically told me as we followed our friends to a booth not the far from the door.

I let out a little giggle while biting my lip to hold back a loud laugh. For some reason I found his remark funny. Maybe cause I was buzzed and blazed, who knows? Whenever we (and by we I mean me and Bender) reached the table we had to sit together on one side of the booth since Bob, Erik, and Snake were on the other side. Bob looked like he was about to pass out again as he leaned against the window he was sitting by. Silently I slid into the booth, Bender getting in next to me.

"Coffee?" The waitress asked us in a nasally shout from her spot behind the counter, not even bothering to come over to the table and ask us like a normal waitress would.

"Yea." Our group answered in a chorus of voices. Well, all of us except for Bob (he just mumbled a yea or at least I think he did).

We all pulled our packs of smokes out and lit up while waiting for our waitress to bring us over our coffees. Erik grabbed the red plastic ashtray, which matched the entire red diner décor of Ruby's, and placed it in the middle of the table so all of us could use it. Bob had officially drifted off back to sleep, snoring softly, as the rest of us took drags off our smokes. Smoke formed over our table like a cloud as our waitress appeared at our table, balancing a tray full of coffee cups. "Here's your coffee." The middle-aged woman, whose nametag read _Susie_, told us as she placed our cups down in front of us a bit roughly. A drop of coffee spilled over the rim of Bob's cup, startling him awake. She tossed a pile of menus as us before stalking back to her spot behind the counter.

"That waitress is a royal bitch." Erik remarked, grabbing his mug and taking a sip of his coffee.

"I ain't tipping her, she spilled coffee on my hand." Bob grumbled, most likely upset that the spilt hot coffee woke him up, as he grabbed his menu.

"Shut up, Bob, not like you were planning on ordering food since you were dozed off." Snake barked as he read his menu front to back as if it was a book and not a plastic covered pamphlet holding food choices.

"I wasn't dozed off, I was resting." Bob groggily protested.

"Mhm…" I sing songed, sipping on my coffee, as I scanned my menu.

Bender wasn't even opening his up, instead he was just sitting and sipping on his black coffee. I wonder if he already knows what he's buying or if he's not buying anything at all.

Suddenly, without much of a warning, our bitchy brunette waitress appeared at our table with a nasty look on her face. Pulling a pad and pen out of her white apron, Sue asked us in a bored nasally tone, "What're you kids having."

A sarcastic grin spread over Bender's face as he told her, "Are you on the menu, Miss Sunshine? If not I'll just have the toast combo with the 2 bacon and 2 fried eggs, sunny side up."

"Oh, I'm too tired to be dealing with your shit this morning." Susie muttered as she quickly scribbled down Bender's order. Pointing her pen at me she asked, "And what about you, hun?"

"I'll have the pancake platter, but can I have extra bacon instead of the eggs? I don't really like eggs." I politely ordered, hoping that I wouldn't get stuck with eggs. God, I hated them. I don't know why, I just thought that they were nasty. Ever since I was little I always turned my nose up at them.

"Oh, you're a bigger pain in the ass then your boyfriend." The waitress muttered under her breath, causing Bender to give her a cold cutting glare with his brown eyes. Like Bob said, Susie's a bitch so no tip for her rude ass. I narrowed my eyes at her, causing the waitress to sigh while scribbling down my order, "Yea, you can have a couple more bacon slices in place of the eggs."

"Grand Slam platter, scramble the eggs." Snake said as our waitress looked at him.

"And you?" Susie asked Erik, tilting her head at him in annoyance.

"Three Waffles with a side of bacon." The greasy blonde told our waitress while tipping some cigarette ashes into the ashtray directly in front of him.

Bob stared at our waitress, who he didn't like, while telling her, "Toast, black like my soul."

Instead of telling us something nice like 'That'll be out soon' or 'I'll go put in your order' our waitress just snatched our menus off the table and stalked off towards the kitchen.

Silently, we just sat and smoked. My eyes darted around the diner as I took in my surrounds. I read a few of the old-fashioned poster ads for burgers, fries, shakes, and breakfast items before my cornflower blues landed on the red plastic clock that was mounted above the counter. Holy it, it read 2:25 am. Oh god, I had no idea it was that late. Hell, never even stayed out that late partying back in Mate Creek. Oh lordy, seems like my new group of friends are the partying bad boys. By time we're done eating and I get home it'll be after 3 o'clock in the morning. Hell, I'm lucky if I'll get a couple good hours of sleep before I gotta get up and ready for school. Yea, going out on a school night in hindsight prolly wasn't the brightest thing to do, but oh well I did it so no use mulling over it now.

"Isn't it past your bedtime?" The waitress asked us as she appeared at the table, balancing a large tray that had our order on it.

Bob just stared daggers at her, waiting for his plate a toast, while the rest of us rolled our eyes at her. Well, all of us except Bender that is. He just had to open up his mouth and make the sarcastic remark of, "Oh, no, our mommies forgot to tuck us in with teddy bears. I guess we just have to eat here; give you a reason to take home a paycheck, Miss Sunshine.", as the waitress began to place our plates in front of us.

Looking right at me after putting our plates down, Susie the graveyard shift waitress gave me the advice of, "If you're smart, girl, you'd drop him like a bad habit and find a nice boy who won't keep you out all night when you got school the next day." Pointing her nose at Bender, who was digging into his breakfast like a starving man, she told me, "Boys like him are headed nowhere, take you down with him."

Bender's head shot up, making his dark brown hair rustle a bit around the collar of his jacket, and he gave our waitress a stone-cold stare. "Eat my shorts." He hissed at her, clearly bothered by what he heard her tell me.

Bob just leaned against the window nibbling on his black toast while Erik and Snake ate their breakfast while looking between Bender and the waitress. Hmm, I take it this isn't the first time Bender's been insulted while out in public.

"Little brat's gonna end up in jail like his uncle." The middle-aged waitress muttered under her breath before storming off back to her hovel behind the front counter.

I could see out of the corner of my eye that Susie's remark had an effect on Bender. His hand shook slightly in anger, or at least I think it was anger, as he forcefully dipped his toast into the yolk part of his sunny side up egg. His jaw was clenched and his gaze was locked on his food. Yea, his nerves were shot and he was pissed at the waitress. Clearly, her muttered near whisper of a remark got under his skin. After a few seconds Bender took a large bite out of his yolk dipped toast and leaned back, a bit tensely might I add, into our booth.

I didn't pay him any mind, just ate and secretly hope that I'd be able to survive my morning classes tomorrow at Shermer High since I was up and out all night long. Hell, grandpa's not going to be too happy with me either if he finds out how late I stayed out. Great...

* * *

**AN:**

**Bender doesn't live far from Gertie (they're on the same street, but she doesn't know that) so instead of being picked up at a bus bench on the side of the main road he just had his friend pick them both up together. Yea, I really don't see Bender ever having people over to his house considering his dad beats the shit out of him on a daily basis (or just about it). Oh and yea Gertie and Bender ran into Claire skipping to take off to get lunch and to go shopping (ditching some afternoon classes and earning her Saturday detention). I just had to toss that in there. Anyways, I may do a Bender POV next chapter. I'm not sure yet, but yea. **


	3. Friday Before Detention

***Author's Note***

**Thank you for all the follows, faves, and reviews.**

* * *

**Friday Before Detention**

**John POV:**

When I walked thru the door of my house the tv was on in the living room, casting a blue glowing light, as my old man was passed out in his chair. A can of beer (half empty I bet) was loosely hanging from his hand as his arm was slung over the side of his chair. Mom wasn't in the living room on the couch so I figured she was upstairs sleeping. At least the old man didn't make her binge drink and watch hockey with him tonight, least it didn't seem like it. As quietly as I could, I walked over to the staircase. I'd only made it up a couple of steps whenever one squeaked. Damn, hope it didn't wake up my old man. I held my breath, focusing my eyes into the dark living room to see if my drunk dad was gonna spring up awake with anger or continue to be passed out cold.

In a snap my old man's chair sprung up and he jumped to his feet. Shit, I woke him up. Quickly I clambered up stairs, hoping to get to my room (and lock the fucking door) before he could catch up to me. I didn't want to get my ass beat (again) for waking him up by coming in too late. I heard my old man's loud footsteps echoing behind me. My foot was about to come down on the top step whenever my old man's rough large hand grabbed me by the back of my collar, lifting my feet an inch off the ground. Spinning me round to stare at me with his brown hate filled eyes, he yelled, "You goddamn piece of free loading shit!" I didn't say a word, just jutted my chin up at him. I had to hold my own, had to show him that even tho he beat me like a dog I wasn't going to cower down. I wasn't going to give up and end up like my mother; a spineless coward cowering and walking on eggshells. "Think it's funny waking me up with your damn coming and going all hours, huh?!" He screamed, slamming me so hard into the wall that the sickening sound of my back cracking echoed out in the air. Fuck, now I'm getting fresh bruises on my back to add to the ones that're almost faded. Looks like I'll be sleeping on my stomach, again. "You're a worthless fucking retarded piece of shit. I'm so sick of you acting like you can do whatever you want when I gotta work a dead-end job to support your lazy ass."

"And I'm sick of you too, old man. Fuck off." I barked, pushing my dad's hands off of my shoulders.

"Disrespectful fuck, I'll teach you some respect." He spat at me before grabbing my arm and twisting it behind my back. He twisted it tighter and tighter, making my arm burn and ache with pain. This it it, the old man's finally going to snap my arm off and break it. Instead of breaking my arm he let it go and tossed my down the stairs. I landed on my side on the floor, feeling the wind get knocked out of me. My side hurt from the fall. Before I could push myself up, I heard my old man run down stairs. "Ain't so tough now are you, you worthless fucking freeloading bum." My old man's hateful voice hoovered over me as he bent down, getting right into my face.

"Fuck you, old man." I spat into his face and I pushed myself up.

He wiped the spit off of his face before grabbing me by my hair and slamming me to the ground as hard as he could. I let out a painful moan, causing him to let my hair go. I thought he was going to either go back into the living room or go upstairs to the room he shared with my pathetic mom, but he didn't. Instead he kicked me in the side over and over again. When he was done, he pressed his foot down on my aching back with all his weight, making me feel like I had a ton of bricks weigh me down. He large meaty hand grabbed my hair and snapped my head back and up in a swift motion. As I looked up at him, my neck feeling like it was going to snap at any second, he snarled, "Next time your fucking ugly ass spits in my face you're dead." He let my hair go harshly, sending my face bouncing into the floor, and stormed back into the living room.

As I painfully pushed myself up, my old man just sat back in his chair; propping his feet up. My sides and back hurt as I stood up and walked upstairs. I gritted my teeth in pain as I walked down the hall to my room. I was used to the beatings and the pain by now, but that didn't mean I was immune to it. I hated being beat by my old man for no damn reason other then he was a mean drunk that took everything out on me. I swear once I graduate and get a job I'm out of this fucking house.

* * *

**Gertie POV:**

My head was pounding so bad I felt like a jackhammer was cracking open my skull as my grandpa drove me to school. God, I was so tired and felt like shit. Yea, partying on a school night wasn't that great of an idea after all since now I was hangover with the headache from hell. My grandpa found my miserable state funny. He looked between me and the road while chuckling, "You look like somebody ran you over with a mack truck."

"I feel like somebody ran me over with a mack truck."

"Well, here's your stop." My grandpa told me as he pulled the truck to a stop.

"Are you sure I can't just stay home sick, grandpa?" I asked, giving my grandpa a pout, as I slung my bag over my shoulder.

"No, Gertie. I told ya last night you were going to school today hungover or not." I heard my grandpa firmly tell me as I watched Bender cross the lot; walking in front of my grandpa's old truck.

"I know, but it was worth a try." I sighed, flinging open the truck door and climbing out.

Before I could close the door and run off with Bender, who was dragging his ass across the sidewalk, my grandpa loudly told me in his deep raspy smoker's voice, "Hey, if Vice Peckerwood's still subbing that history class you better tape your eyes open to keep yourself awake. You're already wasting your day tomorrow in detention, don't need one tacked onto next Saturday too."

"Okay." I mumbled, closing the truck door right as the car behind us honked.

Oh no…the driver would honk at grandpa. Quickly, I rushed off as my grandpa turned his head round and shot the driver behind him a bird while barking, "Shove it up your ass!"

Oh, I have such a nice grandpa. No wonder I'm so snarky. "I see where you get your feisty personality from, Cupcake." Bender told me, leaning against the stair railing while waiting for me. I didn't say a word, just shrugged while shuffling over to his side. "So, what'd you do for Dick to give you Saturday detention?"

**John POV:**

Poor Cupcake's stuck spending the entire day with Vernon tomorrow. I feel bad for her, that man's a creep. Bet he'll be sitting in the library checking her out or something. Hmm, I might have to do something to get myself into detention too. Don't want that brownie hound creeping on her, freaking her out and shit. Burners watch out for one another, have each other's back and she's part of that now. Can't let her suffer detention alone. Now how am I going to get one so fast? Hmm, I think I can figure something out.

"Walked around the classroom and sassed him." Gertie answered me as we walked up the stairs together, sunglasses on our faces since we were both suffering from hangover headaches and couldn't handle bright light.

"Nice." I nonchalantly told her, opening up the large double glass doors of Shermer High.

"Not really since I'm stuck wasting my Saturday locked up." She scoffed, walking by me and into the building. "It's stupid that I got detention cause I got up to get a book." Gertie complained as I followed her thru the door.

Waggling my finger at her, I smirked, "Ah, don't forget you got sassy with Dick."

She just shook her head at me, a small smirk on her lips, as we made our way down the hall. As we walked together to our lockers, I could feel eyes on us and could hear low gossiping whispers. I turned my head over my shoulder, giving a hard glare to the gossipers, while Cupcake just trudged over to her locker. As she unlocked her locker I just went over to mine. She was grabbing some books as I opened up my locker. I took off my grey coat and red scarf, stuffing them inside of my locker, as I heard Gertie slam her door shut. I was grabbing a book for my first class, some bullshit economics course that I never was gonna need cause I wasn't going to fall into a fuck ton of money to invest, whenever I heard footsteps pitter pattering over to me.

"What's that?" I heard Gertie's voice ask me.

Looking at her I asked, "What's what?"

"That." She pointed her finger at my shop class project. I got an A on it yesterday, just didn't bring it home yet.

"It's an elephant lamp. Made it in shop." I told her, sliding over slightly so she could take a good look at the lamp wedged in the bottom of my locker.

"Oh, okay."

Slamming my locker shut, I tilted my head slightly and suggested, "Come on, let's go find the guys."

As we walked down the hall, we passed by a group of fucking richie girls. Those bitches were making remarks about us behind our backs. I was used to being put down by everyone, including my own parents. Gertie just rolled her eyes at their comments of, "That poor new girl's got no idea what she's gotten herself into hooking up with that criminal.", "She must be crazy to be seen with him.", "She's going to end up in the hood on welfare being with him."

Once we were out of earshot of the bitches, Gertie looked up at me and asked, "So, you're from the hood?"

"We both are, Cupcake." I smirked, a slight chuckle vibrating in the back of my throat.

"What?"

"You don't live far from me, remember? We're both from the wrong side of the tracks."

She let out a small laugh before looking at me and smirking, "Story of my live. Seems Hatfields are good for being from the wrong side of things."

I just nodded my head at her in respect, a smirk lightly pulling at the corners of my mouth. So, her family was always from the wrong side of the tracks; I'm cool with that. I knew she'd be a good fit with my burner group; seems I was right.

* * *

**Gertie POV:**

My history teacher Mrs. Vetter had returned from sick leave, much to my relief since I was so tired of Vernon playing sub for the class. Since it was Friday and the teacher didn't feel like teaching after being out sick most of the week, she made us watch the musical movie 1776. She claimed it was educational (since it was about the start of the revolutionary war, etc.), but I thought it was an annoying movie. I honestly wasn't into musicals so…

Bored to death and tired from partying all night, I nodded off. A shrill bell sound jolted me awake. Ah shit, the fire alarm was going off. "Class, quickly, but orderly, let's go to the football field." Mrs. Vetter told us as we all jumped out of our seats.

The hallway was crowded as everyone rushed to get to the stairwell in order to get to the first floor and outside. I was exhausted; running on autopilot as I followed the heard of students downstairs, out the door, and onto the football field. During alarms and drills we're supposed to stay with our class, but half the time that rarely happens when people spot their friends. I know that I was one of the wandering students, but only cause Bender waved me over to where he was at with his friends (well my friends now too when I think of it).

"You look like shit, Cupcake." Bender whistled teasingly as me as I stopped by his side, wedging myself between him and Erik.

"Thanks, Captain Obviously." I sarcastically told Bender, giving him a narrowed look. "I was sleeping when the alarm went off, reason I look shitty."

"Sorry."

"Sorry?..." My brows furrowed. Suddenly it dawned on me why Bender was saying sorry. "Oh god, you pulled the alarm, didn't you?"

"Maybe, maybe not." The bad boy shrugged with a devil may care attitude.

"Man, if Vernon finds out you're gonna get in trouble." Snake let out in a long sing-song type tone, giving his friend a pointed look.

"I don't give a shit." Bender quickly declared; his chin held up high. Of course, he didn't…

"Um, I think some freshman's narcing on you." Bobby told Bender, pointing out some small teens (that looked like freshman) talking to Mr. Vernon nearby and pointing to Bender.

"Bender!" Vice Principal Vernon bellowed loudly, marching over to our group so fast that his patent leather loafers were squeaking against the plush gridiron grass. His eyes burned like angry coals as he stopped right in front of John. "Heard you're responsible for the false alarm, Bender."

Bender did a slight hair flip, causing the dark brown locks to rustle around, before crossing his arms ocer his chest and nonchalantly saying, "Yea, you heard right, Dick."

"You've got detention tomorrow, bub." The vice principal informed the leader of the burnouts before angrily stalking off and yelling to the entire student body, "False alarm, get back to your classes! Now, move it!"

* * *

I was sitting on the floor in the gym (in the spot assigned for my gym class since there were a couple teachers' classes in the room) dressed out in my uniform, that I despised since the cloth shorts felt too short and the shirt too tight. Hell, who even makes this shit, Satan? How are we expected to do sports and exercise in things that're gonna get us gawked at by the male classmates?

Suddenly, the quiet atmosphere of the gym was broken by the loud crying shrill scream (that sounded like a dying animal) echoing from the door to the boys' locker room. The screams got louder and louder, causing all of us in the gym to look on in pure shock and horror. After a few more seconds the door to the locker room flew open and a boy ran out screaming, "Come quick, Coach Hill, a small kid's getting jumped!"

Quickly Coach Hill, who was a tall and burly man, rushed over to the locker room. He disappeared inside of it as loud cheers and cries were emerging from the locker room, so loudly that the door was doing nothing to muffle them.

Coach Lewis, who was a thinly built brunette woman, looked at her class and mine (which happened to be Coach Hill's, yay…) while saying, "Looks like today's a free day. Play whatever sport you want to here in the gym."

When the door to the boys' locker room opened up again, a herd of jocks flooded out into the gym with cruel smiles and grins on their faces as they laughed and snickered amongst each other. Hmm, seems that whatever hell happened in the locker room the jocks were edgin' it on.

Even tho we were supposed to be playing sports, all of us were sitting in shock and watching the door to the locker room with wide eyes as the loud screams turned into loud cries and sniffles. Whatever was going on in there was bad, very bad. Suddenly, the door opened and Coach Hill popped his head out of the crack. "Myers, go get Vernon and Nurse Lee; bring them to the boys' locker room ASAP!"

Myers, a tall guy with a bad bowl cut, just nodded his head and quickly got to his feet. He literally ran out of the gym to go fetch the vice principal and the nurse. Oh hell, something very very bad happened in that locker room.

Safe to ssay for the rest of class everyone did nothing, but sit around and whisper about what was happening. Apparently, a jock jumped some small geeky kid and taped his ass cheeks together. Oh dear god…

* * *

"Did you see that road spill in the hall?" Bender asked, plopping down on the stool next to me in our art class.

Figuring he was talking about the locker that had its door blown open, I just nodded. "Yea."

"Looks like a firecracker or some shit went off in it." Bender elaborated, leaning his elbows down on the table as we waited for class to start and our teacher to give us permission to grab our canvases.

"Bet it was a stupid senior prank." I mused, watching students scurrying thru the doors as the ticking clock upfront above the blackboard counted down the seconds til the last bell would ring.

"That was stupid. Now, blowing up a toilet would've been better."

"Of course, you'd say that." I shook my head, biting back a smirk. "So, since you pulled a false alarm, we're both in detention tomorrow."

"Yep." Popped Bender's tongue. Sitting up straight and crossing his arms over his jean jacket covered chest, he gave me a tilted look while telling me, "See, I couldn't let you have all the fun tomorrow with Dick."

"Of course not." I scoffed, lightly shaking my head and making my messy copper bun shake and threaten to fall out of its scrunchie.

The final bell rang and the teacher rose from her desk and went to the front of the room. Bender looked bored out of his mind next to me as the art teacher began to give us our instructions. "So, class, go and get your paintings and put the finishing touches on them. They're due by the end of class." Mrs. Miller ended her speech and went back to her desk with a bounce in her step. Yep, I still want what she's smoking.

"Hey, get my thing would you?" Bender asked me as I got out of my seat, like the rest of our classmates. Well all except for the jock Andy Clark, his spot upfront next to the other jock was empty. Wonder what happened to him? I mean ain't cutting class a way to get benched in sports? I mean the last I knew it was.

I just shrugged, pushing away all thoughts of the absent jock, and simply told Bender, "Sure, I'll get it."

I quickly grabbed our canvases from the back counter and was walking back to our table whenever I noticed the weird girl in all black sitting at her desk painting. Oh my god, this weird girl's work was amazing. It was like she was the reincarnation of Van Gogh. Wow, just wow. She must've felt me staring at her project cause she whipped her head around and gave me a nasty look. A look that shook me might I add.

I just rushed back to my table, placing both mine and Bender's canvases onto the small easels before taking a seat next to him.

"Took you long enough. Hell, snow melts faster then you."

"It was crowded over there ya know. We're not the only ones in this class." I brushed off his quip, grabbing a paintbrush and dipping it into some yellow paint. "'Sides, not like you're actually going to paint anyways." I smirked, brushing the yellow paint across my canvas to make some petals for some sunflowers.

Bender didn't say a word, just cracked a lopsided smile before starting his trademark balancing act with his stool. And for the rest of the class I painted while he did things to keep himself occupied with, including humming the tune of a Doors song.

* * *

**AN:**

**Next up is Saturday detention, yay! Anyways, I decided to have Gertie see/witness the events that landed the other students in detention. **


	4. Detention Pt1

***Author's Note***

**Thank you for all the follows, faves, and reviews.**

**Detention Pt.1**

_Saturday March 24, 1984_

_Shermer High School_

_Shermer, Illinois, 60062_

_Dear Mr. Vernon,_

_We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did was wrong, but we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us. In the simplest terms; the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a criminal, and a rebel. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed. _

* * *

**Gertie POV:**

It was freezing this morning since a freaky spring snow flurry happened last night. Damn, weather in the North Shore area was bat shit crazy bipolar. Fuck, it wasn't supposed to snow in the spring. Back home in the Tug River Valley it was actually spring, you know with sun and rain showers to make green sprigs grow and sprout. So, yea, since I had detention, I had to be up in the cold instead of snuggled up in my warn bed. I had to pull my favorite maroon sweatshirt (which was a bit ratty by now since I've had it since freshman year) over my Star Wars t-shirt before slipping on my leather jacket and leaving the house.

Since my grandpa wasn't getting his ass out of bed early on a Saturday morning to drive me to school, I was stuck walking. Shermer High wasn't that far from my street, maybe 7 or 8 blocks away, so it wasn't like I had to walk very far. I just didn't like the idea of having to walk since it was cold out and too early on a Saturday morning for my liking.

I was almost to the top of my street whenever I heard quick paced footsteps echoing behind me. I looked over my shoulder, to scope out who was behind me, only to see Bender trying to speed walk to catch up with me. I nodded a silent greeting to him, which he just responded to with a nod of his own. "What? No ride from gramps today?" He asked as he reached my side.

"Nope, he's not getting up early on a weekend just cause I got detention." I told Bender, looking at the sunglasses perched on the bridge of his nose.

"Gramps gonna pick you up?" He asked, sounding genuinely curious about how I was getting home this afternoon.

"No, he'll be too busy at the VA Clubhouse bamboozling his fellow vets out of money while playing cards." I said matter-o-factly, a smirk crossing my face as I pictured my grandpa cheating all of his friends out of their money. My grandpa was a card shark, he learned his card skills his grandpa and even taught me a thing or two.

"Ah." Bender just nodded his head, trying and failing to hide his amused smirk.

"So, are we neighbors or something?" I asked since that was the vibe I was getting. I mean why else would he be walking up my street for?

"No, I live further down the street." He told me as we walked side by side down the street, huddled in our winter wear and freezing our asses off.

"That's what being neighbors means, Bender."

"Trust me, Cupcake, be thankful that you live higher up on the street cause you wouldn't want to be anywhere near my house."

"Oh, that good?" I sarcastically asked as we walked down the sidewalk of the main road, making our trek to Shermer High.

"Yea, my old man's always good for a one-man drinking show." Oh, so his dad was an alcoholic. Okay, that explains why he's remarking that it's a good thing we're not close neighbors since drunks can be rowdy and shit.

"Oh…" I said since I didn't know what else to say. I knew that alcoholism was a tricky subject to talk about with people so I was treading lightly.

Silence fell over us as we walked down the sidewalk, making our way towards Shermer High.

* * *

As we walked across the parking lot Bender just went right in front of a car. Jesus, does he have a death wish or does he just not give a shit? I gave the driver of the car, a dark-haired woman, a shrug as she quickly halted to a stop, but she didn't notice or didn't care. Whatever. I just sped up my pace and rejoined Bender's side. As we silently walked up the stairs to the entrance of the high school, I heard a car door slam shut. So, seems like somebody's joining us in detention today.

Silently, we walked into the building and made our way to the library. The door was wide open so me and Bender just went inside. While walking by the librarian's desk Bender's hand skimming over random objects on the desk, knocking some over. He picked up a stack of pick index cards and pocketed them, causing me to just shake my head. As I walked away from the desk, I noticed that sitting in one of the front desks was Claire and Andy, the popular prep girl and the popular jock. Also, in the desk behind them was the nerdy kid from my history class, Brian. What the hell, why are these people in here? They're not the detention type.

Bender nudged my shoulder and subtly gestured to the desk behind the preps, silently telling me that's where we were gonna sit. I just nodded, letting him know that I was fine with wherever he wanted to sit. I walked over to the table, by passing on the far end side and walking by Claire. The redhead prom queen looked me over in disgust and judgement, even giving me a slight eye roll. Damn, queenie has an attitude when it comes to the peasants. Bender walked by Andy's side of the front table to get to the table Brian was at, the one we were going to sit at. I assumed we were going to share the table with the brainy kid, but Bender had other ideas. As I took my seat, plopping my bag onto the table, Bender pointed at Brian and then to the table across from the one his was at with a hard-pressed look on his face. Brian scurried over to the next table like his ass was on fire. Bender grabbed the chair that the nerd was in and arranged it so that he could rest his legs and prop his feet up as he took a seat in the chair next to me. His back was by my arm, but I didn't give a shit. I was planning on resting my head on my bag and napping anyways.

The weird girl from my art class walked in with her head hung low to her chest. Um, what did she do to get in here? She quickly walked by Clair and me only to walk around the last table and go to the table in the far back, the one that was behind Brian's. Yep, that girl was weird…

Not even a minute after the dressed in black weirdo sat down the door flung open and in walked Mr. Vernon, clad in one of his John Travolta suits; strutting like he owned the place. Coming to a stop in the front of Claire and Andy's desks while holding a stack of papers in his hand, the vice principal sing-songed, "Well, well… Here we are."

Bender didn't even look at Vernon, just stared off into space as he lounged next to me. The weird girl was hunched over playing with her back pack while Brian was watching Vernon studious, giving away that he was indeed a good student and always paid attention to the speaker. Claire and Andy were stuck paying attention to the vice principal since he was standing less than a yard away from them. As for me, well I was picking at some chipped nail polish while half listening to Vernon. I thought the guy was a douche-nugget so I could care less what he had to say, but I was stuck hearing it tho.

"I want to congratulate you for wasting my time." Vernon flatly told us, dry sarcasm oozing from him as he lightly bounced on the balls of his feet.

Before Veron could continue speaking, Claire's hand shot up faster then a bullet, as she said, "Excuse me, Sir." Vernon just snapped his head in her direction, furrowing his brows at her. "I think there's been a mistake. I mean I know this is detention and all, but I don't belong here." Claire told Vernon, clearly coming across like she was too high and mighty to be spending an entire Saturday in detention with non-popular kids.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes at her little remark. How cute, Queenie's too good to be in the same room with us peasants. God, this girl was something else. Her rich bitch attitude was sickening. I would be trapped in a library with the likes of the prep-squad princess.

Vernon ignored Claire's plea, instead he looked at his wrist watch while telling us, "It is now 7:06." Brian looked at his watch while Claire and Andy shared a look. Me and Bender didn't do a thing, just sat bored out of our minds, as Vice Peckerwood (as grandpa calls him) went on to lecture us with, "You have exactly 8 hours and 50 minutes to think about why you're here; ponder the error of your ways."

Bender tilted his head back and spit a loogie up into the air only to catch it in his mouth. Claire made a disgusted look as if she'd seen the nastiest thing in the world. I wasn't freaked out tho. I mean I grew up tagging along with my big brother and his friends, plus I always had more guy friends then girls too. Spitting was just what guys did, didn't bother me none. Eh, yet again I was from back hills West Virginia were people are always spitting cause of chewing tobacco.

"Nice." I whispered to Bender, giving him a thumbs up.

Pointing at Claire, Vernon said, "You may not talk." Right as Brian moved his backpack and went to scoot over into the chair next to him, Vernon said, "You may not move from these seats." Quickly, looking like a scared rabbit, Brian moved back into his original seat. Vernon walked over to me and Bender's table, staring us down like we were bugs needing to be squashed. "And you two, will not sleep." He told us, grabbing the chair propped under Bender's feet and yanking it away. Bender's booted feet fell to the ground with a thud as Vernon shoved the chair under the other side of the desk. Bender and me shared a look that screamed _Fuck this shit_ as Vernon told us, "Alright, people, we're gonna try something new today." Lightly flicking his wrist and making the papers rustle he revealed, "We're going to write an essay." Great, this douche loves assigning essays. An essay in detention, now I've heard of it all. Going over to the weird art girl, he placed a paper and pencil down on her desk. "No less than a thousand words." He came over to me and Bender, placing papers and pencils down for us. "Describing to me who you think you are." The fuck? Is he serious?

Bender looked at Vernon as he went over to give Brian his pencil and paper and asked, "This a test?"

"And when I say essay, I mean essay." Vernon placed the writing supplies on the nerd's desk before going over to Claire and Andy. While giving them their papers and pencils, Vernon remarked, "I don't mean one word repeated a thousand times." Looking right at John he asked, "Is that clear, Mr. Bender?"

Bender propped his feet onto the desk and relaxed a bit in his seat. His eyes drifted away from the front and landed on a random spot on the carpet as he simply uttered out, "Crystal."

"Maybe you'll learn a little something about yourself. Maybe even decide whether or no you'd care to return." Vernon droned on with his stupid monologue. Really, like an essay's going to work like a self-help book on us? Is he fucking off his rocker?

Brian raised his hand and stood up only to say, "Uh, I can answer that right now, Sir. That's be no for me."

"Sit down, Johnson." Vernon told the geeky blonde, causing him to sit down in a snap.

Pointing to the door, Vernon said, "My office is right across that hall." No shit, everyone knows that. It's the damn reason detention's in a library, ya know so he can keep and eye on us. "Any monkey business is ill advised." Bender just turned his head, arching a brow and giving me a smirk. I just smirk back, knowing that we'd be doing some shit that wasn't Vernon approved during our lock up. "Questions?"

Since all he got was silence, Vernon was getting ready to leave, but stopped whenever Bender's voice spoke up with, "Yea, I got a question." Vernon just nodded, silently telling him to proceed. "Does Barry Manilow know you raided his wardrobe?"

Without even thinking, I blurted out (more so to Bender then to anybody else), "Looks more like John Travolta's closet got raided."

Pointing at the burner next to me, Vernon declared, "I'll give you the answer to that, Mr. Bender, next Saturday." Turning his attention to me, he said, "And you, Miss Hatfield, why am I not even surprised to see that you've fallen in with him?" Giving me a hard look, Vernon added, "Next time you make another remark I'll be giving you detention next Saturday too." I didn't say a word since I didn't want another detention. Vernon turned his attention back to Bender. While pointing at him, he warned, "Mess with the bull you'll get the horns, young man."

Vernon, pleased with himself for giving out an essay assignment, handing Bender a detention for next Saturday, threatening me with another detention, and just making us miserable, turned on his heel and walked right out of the room.

Pointing at Vernon's retreating form, Bender announced, "That man's a brownie hound."

"Yep." I popped my tongue, watching Vernon disappear into his office.

Clicking noises loudly echoed in the air. Everybody turned around to see what was causing the sound only to see the weird girl in all black (even her damn parka with fur trimmed hood was black) gnawing at her thumb nail. She stopped for a second to turned her head around and see that everyone was staring at her, freaked out and dumbfounded. She gave us a dark look before going back to chewing on her thumb nail. Oh my god, is she eating it to the nail bed or something? Her thumb was literally in her mouth.

"You keep eating your hand and you won't be hungry for lunch." Bender told her, causing the weird girl to spit her nail at him. Ick. Pointing at her, he said, "You know, I've seen you before."

"She's in our art class. She sits in the far back." I told Bender, earning me a nod and a silent oh from him.

* * *

God, I was bored to death. It felt like I'd been inside the library for hours, but in reality, it was for only 5 minutes max. I shrugged out of my leather jacket while Brian was pretending that he was a walrus with his pen latched onto his bottom lip. Me and Bender were watching him, think he's lost his marbles, as the brainiac began to chant, "Who are you? Who are you? I'm a walrus."

"God, and they say us burners have fried brains." I whispered to Bender as he continued to watch Brian, who was opening and shutting his mouth with the pen latched onto it, mimicking a walrus.

Bender just nodded his head, agreeing with me, as we stared at the nerd train wreck that was Brian Johnson, smartest kid in the entire senior class and most likely the entire school. Brian felt our stares and turned around to look at us. He took the pen out of his mouth as Bender unwrapped the red scarf from his neck. Bender was taking his jacket off, but so was Brian and when the latter noticed they wear both doing the same thing he sat still and put his jacket back on. It was clear as day to me that Bender scared the shit out of Brian. Hell, probably even in here, but me.

Nervously, Brian tried to break the awkward ice by saying, "It's the shits."

Bender just ignored Brian and sat straight in his chair. He balled up his paper and threw it between Claire and Andy, the paper ball missed the desktop entirely, before playing air guitar and singing, "Nah…nah nah nah nah-nah nah-nah nah nah-nah nah…"

I just shook my head before leaning it down on my bag, using it like a makeshift pillow. God, I usually sleep in til 10 on the weekends, but no I'm stuck here in hell.

"I can't believe this is really happening to me." Claire whined dramatically, acting like being in detention was the end of the world.

Annoyed by Claire's better than thou attitude, I bluntly told her, "Well, ya better believe it, Queenie, cause it's happening. Oh, it's happening and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

"Shit…" Bender hissed before turning around in mock worry while asking, "What do we do if we gotta take a piss?" Claire and Andy were most likely rolling their eyes at Bender, or at least that's what their frigid body language gave off as they readjusted themselves in their seats. "You gotta go, you gotta go." Bender announced, bending over his desk right as the sound of his zipper echoed out into the air.

"Bender, really?" I arched my brow up at him. Shaking my head, I sighed, "God, I hope you're just joshin'." I didn't think he'd actually whip his thing out and piss on the floor, but hey with Bender who knows.

Andy turned around in his chair and firmly told the brunette bad bot next to me, "You're not urinating in here, man."

"Be quiet, no talking, it makes it crawl back up." Bender told Andy as he made weird facial movements. Oh god, Bender, please don't actually piss in here.

"You whip it out and you're dead before the first drop hits the floor." The jock threatened my friend, staring at him with irritation in his eyes.

"God, I can't believe a fight's gonna break out over pissin' on the floor." I scoffed, shaking my head incredulously. Lifting my head off of my bag, I looked over at my friend and told him, "Zip up Bender Junior, I don't feel like getting a goddamn headache from a bitching jock this early in the morning."

"You're sexy when you're angry. Grr…" Bender remarked, whether to me or to Andy I wasn't to sure, before zipping up his pants and sitting up straight. Tilting his head to look at Brian, Bender told him in his sardonic timbre, "Hey, homeboy, let's close the door so we can get the prom queen and Cupcake here pregnant."

Claire was fidgeting in her chair, clearly bothered by Bender's remarks. He was being a jerk, but I think he was doing it to get underneath everyone's skin since he didn't like anybody. Well, I guess he liked me well enough, but I don't think that I counted. I mean we were fine with serving detention together (since we were friends), but with everyone else, well I think that's a different story or at least it is in Bender's mind.

"Oh, John-Boy, you don't wanna get this pregnant unless you want a shot gun wedding filled with pissed off West Virginians as attendees." And I wasn't kidding at all. That's what happened in my family, shot gun weddings with the male family members so pissed that they'd shot the groom if they could.

"Hey, if I lose my temper, you're totaled man." Andy warned Bender.

"Totally?" Bender asked in a fake surfer accent.

"Totally." Parroted the jock.

Claire turned around to look at Bender only to tell him in a snotty tone, "Shut up, nobody here's interested."

After Claire turned back around in her seat Andy mumbled something, but I wasn't sure what. Bender, determined to annoy the preps, asked Andy a bit sarcastically, "What'd you do to land yourself in here, Sporto? Forget to wash your jock?"

Looking at Bender, Brian suggested, "I think we should be quiet and write our essays."

Andy turned around in his chair and looked right at the bad boy next to me while shouting, "Just cause you live here doesn't give you the right to be a pain in the ass so knock it off."

Bender chewed on his lip for a second before slowly shaking his head and saying, "It's a free country."

Claire was looking between Andy and Bender and it seemed like she wanted to say something. Well, too bad for her, I beat her to the punch by bluntly telling the jock, "Ignore him, he's just trying to get a rise outta ya."

Bender did a hair flip, revealing that he had a few earlobe piercings and a cuff, while telling me with a smirk, "Sweets, you couldn't ignore me if you tried."

"I know." I simply said, taking John aback and causing him to blink as an odd look crossed his usually stoic features.

"So, are you guys like boyfriend girlfriend, steady dates, lovers?" Bender asked the popular kids in front of us, most likely to rag them.

"Of course, they are, Bender." I told Bender, earning me a look from him that silently said _please explain, Cupcake._ Taking his challenge, I went on to explain myself with the long remark of, "It's an unwritten rule that popular people go with popular people. You know, just like how pretty people go with pretty people, ugly people go with ugly people, nerds go with nerds, freaks go with freaks."

"Are you two together?" Brian asked us, pointing between me and Bender.

"We're just friends." I answered him, causing the nerd to just nod his head and let out a silent ah.

"Level with me, Sporto, do you slip her the hot beef injection?" Bender crudely asked Andy, clearly trying to gauge a reaction.

"Go to hell!" Clair shouted while at the same time Andy turned around and barked, "Enough!"

"That would be a no." I chuckled before going on to tell Bender in a matter-o-fact tone, "She's too bitchy and he's frustrated to be gettin' any."

"What the hell's going on in there?!" Vernon hollered from across the hall.

Oh shit, we're being too loud. Suddenly, a lull of silence fell over the room. Guess the talking done with since nobody wants to deal with the vice principal.

* * *

Bender nudged my shoulder and gestured to the door with his head, silently communicating that he wanted to close it. I didn't care if the door was open or shut, it didn't change the fact that I was trapped in the library all damn day. I just nodded, letting him know that I was fine with him wanting to shut the door. Standing up, Bender announced, "Let's close that door." Walking over to the wooden railing separating the desks from the wooden file cabinets, he clarified, "Can't have a party with Dick checking us out every few minutes."

As Bender sat down on the railing I sighed and got up to join him. Friends don't let friends do dumb shit alone, right? As I walked over to the railing, I heard Andy bark, "Sit back down, Bender. There's 5 other people here you know."

"Oh, so you can count? I knew you had to be smart to be a wrestler." Bender sarcastically told Andy as I leaned against the railing. My shoulder was near Bender's knee, as I nonchalantly looked between my friend and the jock that he was getting ready to get into a row with.

"You know, Bender, your opinion doesn't even count. You know if you disappeared forever it wouldn't even make a difference. You might as well not even exist at this school." Andy told Bender with a cruel undertone to his voice. His words hurt Bender, that much was clear by how he struggled to keep a neutral expression on his face while bobbing his head around. Those words were like a slap to his face, cut him deep.

"That's horrible. How can you even say that to him?" I spat at Andy, seeing red that he'd stoop down so low to make fun of and degrade somebody he didn't know. "His opinion counts to me." I declared, wanting Bender to know that at least he had me in his corner. Hey, he took me into his burner group when he didn't have to so the least, I could do was take up for him.

"Of course, you'd say that, you're always with him." Claire remarked, rolling her eyes at me before looking straight ahead.

"Must not be any better than him, huh?" Sporto rhetorically asked, his eyes watching me and Bender intently.

Bender had just regained his composure, even tho I doubt anybody even noticed, and took the heat off of me by telling Pretty In Pink and Jockstrap, "Well, then, perhaps I'll go on out and join the wrestling team; prep club too." Claire and Andy were biting their lips and letting out muffled laughs as John added in the last club activity of, "Student council."

Looking at him like he was trash, Andy told Bender, "No, they wouldn't take you."

"I'm hurt." Bender quipped, cocking his head slightly.

"Guys like you knock everything cause you're afraid." Claire said in a high and mighty know-it-all tone as she gave Bender a scrutinizing look.

"God, you richies are so smart. That's exactly why I'm not heavy in activities." Bender sarcastically scoffed, shaking his head and making his brown shaggy hair bounce around slightly.

"I'm in the math club." Brian piped up from his spot as an attempt to oin the conversation (or should I say spat) that Bender was having with Miss Pinky Prep.

"You're afraid they won't take you; you don't belong so you dump all over them." Claire told John, staring him down and trying to make him have a revelation about himself. From the bored look on his face, her psychobabble wasn't working.

"Well, wouldn't have anything to do with you activities people being assholes now would it?" John sarcastically asked Claire, putting extra emphasis on the word assholes.

"You don't even know us." The redheaded princess countered the bad boy as her body language turned defensive as she sat up ram rod straight and tilted her nose up.

"I don't know any lepers either, but I'm not gonna go out and join one of their fucking clubs." Bender said, causing me to let out a slight chuckle. Damn, did he have a way with words…

"Watch the mouth." Andy ordered Bender, trying to act like his superior. Please, I think sporto's heard the f-word and many others before. I mean we're all seniors here so…

"I don't know you, but I've known activities people in my old school and well…let's just say same shit different day." I told Claire, backing up John's logic of the club goers being fucking assholes. Claire just gave me a narrowed look before turning her nose up at me. Gosh, this bitch was so pleasant…

"You don't do clubs." Bender stated, not asked, as he looked at me.

"Nope." I popped my tongue before adding in, "Besides why am I gonna pay for fake friends when I can find real ones for free?"

One of Bender's dark brows rose up as he asked, "You pay to be in a club?"

"Monthly club dues, but yea you pay to be a member." I nodded.

"I'm in physics club." Brian shyly squeaked out as he sat with his elbows on his desk.

"Excuse me a sec." Bender said before looking at Brian and asking, "What're you babbling about?"

"I said I'm in the math club, the latin club, and the physics club." Brian said while using his fingers to count off the clubs he was in.

Bender just nodded his head before looking at Claire and asking, "Cherry, are you in the physics club?"

"No, that's an academic club; not the same as other clubs." Queenie snorted, looking offended that Bender would even dare ask her if she was in one of the clubs that the geeky peasants belong in.

"Ah…" Bender trailed off, his head nodding in an exaggerated gesture. Pointing his finger at Brian he said, "But to dorks like him they are." Claire just rolled her eyes and turned her head to the side. I swear if the bitch keeps it up her eyeballs are gonna roll right out of her head. "What'd you do in your club?" Bender asked Brian.

"In physics we talk about physics. Um, properties of physics." Was Brian's answer.

"It's sorta social. Sad and demented, but social." Bender remarked, causing Claire to just lift her head in a snotty manner.

"I guess you could consider us social. There are other children in my club and at the end of the year we have a big banquet at the Hilton." Brian told Bender, looking happy to just be included in the club conversation.

"You load up, you party." Bender teased Brian, moving his arm around in a mock gesture.

"No, we get dressed up. We don't get high." Brian said since he wasn't aware that Bender's remark wasn't a serious one, but one meant to make fun of him. Bender knew as well as I did that nerdy Brian didn't smoke dope.

"Only burners like you and Gertie get high." Claire told Bender, her face scrunching up with judgement.

"Don't knock it 'fore you try it." I told the goody too-shoes princess while Brian rambled on about how he had to borrow his dad's shoes for the banquet and how his cousin from Indiana got high and ate weird munchie foods.

Andy snapped his head to look at me and Bender while snapping, "You guys keep up your talking and Vernon's coming in here. I'm not missing my meet this Saturday on account of you bone heads."

"Oh, wouldn't that be a bite? Missing a whole wrestling meet." Bender sarcastically mocked Andy, making a fist with his hand and moving it in fake enthusiasm.

"You don't know anything bout it, never competed in your life." Andy rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the front of the room, most likely staring out of the open door.

"I know and I feel all empty inside cause of it." Bender sarcastically said, making a fake whining sound with his voice. Bobbing his head from side to side, Bender shook a fist in the air while mockingly remarking, "I have such admiration for guys who roll around on the floor with other guys."

"You don't have any goals."

"Oh, but I do. I wanna be just like you." Bender pointed his finger at Andy. "I figure all I need's a lobotomy and some tights."

"You wear tights?" Brian asked Andy, causig the latter to turn around and look at the skinny nerd.

"No, I wear the required uniform." The jock defended himself, even tho everybody knew what his uniform was.

"Tights." I deadpanned, causing Andy to whip his head around and give me a dirty look.

"Shut up." The clean-cut jock ordered me. Ooo, looks like a hit a nerve. Maybe he didn't like wearing those tights after all.

The sound of Vernon shuffling around in his office echoed into the hall, causing me and Bender to dart off from the railing at quickly find seats. He took one right between Clair and Andy while I took one in the chair behind them (in the chair that Vernon had placed at me and Bender's table after pulling said chair out from underneath my friend's feet.) Vernon just walked out of his office and down the hall, causing me let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding.

"Woo-hoo." Bender said, getting up from his chair. Looking over his shoulder at me he asked, "Be my lookout, Cupcake?"

"You bet." I nodded with a smirk, getting up from the desk I was at.

Quickly we made our way towards the door as Andy told us, "There's not to be any monkey business."

Bender spun on his heel to look at Andy as we were in front of the librarian's desk. Pointing a finger at him, Bender asked sarcastically, "Young man, have you finished your paper?", as I walked by him and stood by the open door.

Bender flipped the collar of his jean jacket and quickly joined me by the door. As I kept an eye out for Vernon, Bender got to work shimming the screw out of the door all the while Claire and Andy were telling us to stop screwing around. Brian even put in his two cents by twlling Bender that school property shouldn't toyed with.

"Get back inside, I almost got it out." Bender told me so I wouldn't get smacked in the face by a heavy door. I just nodded and left my lookout post, opting to stand next to him. As soon as he removed the screw the door slammed shut. "Here, Cupcake, keep it safe." Bender told me while placing the screw in my back pocket and patting my ass.

Quickly, we rushed back to our seats while Andy barked, "That's very funny, now fix it."

"You should really fix that." Brian added in, siding with Andy, as me and Bender plopped down in our seat side by side.

"Fix the door!" Andy ordered in a loud shout.

"Haha, you're a funny guy." Bender sarcastically said before waving his hands and going, "Ssh."

"No, fix the door, Bender!" Andy ordered in a loud shout as he gave him a death stare.

"Shut up!" I snapped at Andy since I was tired of his bullshit.

Suddenly Vernon's voice echoed from the hall with "Goddamnit!" Shit, he heard us. Suddenly, the door flung open and the vice principal marched in with a look of pure rage on his face. Fuck…we're up shit's creek without a paddle now.

* * *

**AN:**

**Hope you guys liked this chapter. Next one will continue where this left off. I think the detention stuff might thank maybe 3 chapters, but I'm not sure yet.**


	5. Detention Pt2

***Author's Note***

**Thank you for all the follows, faves, and reviews.**

**Sorry it's taken a while to get this up. I've been busy and when I've had free time my muses have been filled with ideas for my story Transcending Time.**

* * *

**Detention Pt.2**

**Gertie POV:**

"Why the hell is this door closed?!" Vernon asked in a booming shout as he marched over to the front row of desks. Nobody said a word, just looked at him like we didn't know what he was talking about. Claire and Andy even went as far to shrug at Vernon. "Why is that door closed?" He asked, looking right at Claire.

"We're just sitting here." Claire innocently said.

Vernon came right up to Bender's side of our desk and asked loudly, "Who closed that door?"

"I think it just closed, Sir." Andy's voice sounded out a bit quietly from the row in front of us.

"Who?" Vernon asked again, causing the girl in black to let out a shriek, sounding like a scared mouse, before plopping her head on her desk and cradling it with her crossed arms.

"She doesn't talk, Sir." Bender told the vice principal, placing the heat onto himself.

"Bender, what the hell happened to the door?" Vernon asked, his brows furrowed, as he stared at my friend.

"I dunno, perhaps a screw fell out of it." Bender shrugged.

"A screw fell out?" Vernon flatly asked, a look of disbelief on his face.

"Yea, the world's an imperfect place. Screws fall out all the time."

"Give it to me, Bender." Vice Peckerwood demanded, holding his hand out to Bender. Yea, like he was just gonna drop a screw in it…Get real, Vernon.

"I don't have it." Yea, I did and I was currently sitting on it so…

"Do I have to shake it out of you? I said hand it over." The vice principal shouted, sounding like a nutjob.

"Sir, he doesn't have the screw. He's been sittin' with me the entire time; the door just slammed shut on its own." I told Vice Peckerwood as a way to take the heat off of Bender. Unfortunately, that meant puttin' it on me.

Vice Peckerwood turned his attention to me and asked, "Oh, so Miss Hatfield, you think it's cute to cover for him then?"

"I'm not covering, he doesn't have the screw." I lied with a straight face. A poker face actually, one that my grandpa taught me when I was little.

"Then if he doesn't have it, do you?" Yes, yes I do, but I'm not forking it over.

"She doesn't have it, Dick." Bender quickly spoke up, placing the attention back onto him.

"Then hand it over, Bender." Vernon snapped, his veins bulgin' angrily out of his neck. It was very Hulk-like.

"I don't have it." My smokin' buddy ground out thru gritted teeth.

"Excuse me, Sir, but why would somebody steal a screw?" Claire asked, putting an end to the endless merry-go-round, me, Bender, and Vernon were on.

Vernon just shook his head before storming over to the door. He grabbed a nearby chair and drug it over. Oh dear, he was going to try and prop a heavy door open with a flimsy tin chair. This oughtta be good…

"The door's too heavy, Sir." Bender barely got out of his mouth before the door slammed shut, sending the chair flying somewhere across the hall.

Everyone laughed, chuckled, and giggled. Even the weird girl cracked an amused smile. The only one that didn't find it funny was Vernon, of course, who was shouting, "Damnit!" as he got left in the hall with the discarded chair. He opened the door and entered the library only to stand by the door with his hands on his hips. Looking right at Andy, he snapped his fingers and bellowed, "Andrew Clark!" Andy looked at Vernon as he ordered, "Get up here, front and center. Let's go!"

"How come Andrew gets to get up?" Bender asked, pointing at Andy as he got up and rushed over to Vernon by the door. As Vernon was making Andy help him move a magazine rack to prop the door open with Bender made a dramatic speech of, "If he gets up, we'll all get up; it'll be anarchy."

"Anarchy." I echoed, waving my hands in the air spirit finger style for added dramatic effect. Hey, I couldn't let Bender have all the fun.

Andy was tripping over the magazine rack as he tried to get back inside of the library. Oh god, I was stifling a laugh cause it was just too funny watching the jockstrap nearly kill himself by falling over a magazine rack.

"That's clever, Sir, but what're we supposed to do in case of a fire? I think violating fire codes and endangering the lives of children would be unwise in this point of your career." Bender said in a smartass tone.

"Yea, I don't wanna become a crispy fried fritter." I added in, backing up Bender and where he was going with his remark.

"What're you doing? Get this out of here for god's sake." Vernon barked at Andy, causing the jock to move the magazine rack (by himself too) out of the doorway.

"The library comes with standard emergency fire exits on both sides of the building." Informed Brian as he pointed to all of the exits.

Bender snapped his head in Brian's direction and gritted thru his teeth, "Show Dick some respect."

"Let's go." Vernon told Andy, giving him a light shove and pointing to his empty seat up front. "I expected more out of a varsity letterman." The vice principal chastised Andy with a hard stare as he took his seat.

"You're not fooling anybody, Bender and Gertrude. The next screw to fall out will be you two." Vernon sneered, looking at us with hate shinning in his eyes.

"Eat my shorts." Bender mumbled under his breath right as Vernon turned to go.

Vice Peckerwood spun on his heel and asked the dude next to me, "What did you just say?"

"I said eat my shorts." Bender Loudly enunciated, giving Vernon a 'fuck off' look.

"You just bought yourself another Saturday, mister."

"Ah, I'm crushed." Bender sarcastically told Vernon while rolling his eyes.

"You just bought one more." Vernon barked.

"Well, I'm free the Saturday after that, but beyond that I'll have to check my calendar." Bender sarcastically told the power-hungry vice principal.

"Good, cause it's gonna be filled." Vernon snapped before continuin' his tirade with, "We'll keep going, you want another one? Say the word, just say the word and instead of going to prison you'll come here."

Without thinking, my word vomit got the better of me and I asked Vernon, "Don't you think saying he'll go to prison's a bit much?"

Turning his attention to me, he pointed his finger and said, "Well, looks like you'll be joining your buddy Bender next Saturday." Cutting me a hard look he asked, "Do you want anymore?"

"No." I answered cause I really didn't want anymore detentions.

"Okay, you'll be here the Saturday after that too." Vice Peckerwood told me with a hard look on his face.

"What, but why?" I protested in a high-pitched shriek. How could this asshole do this to me? I didn't do anything and he's giving me more detentions.

"Oh, and the one after that too." Vernon smirked wickedly. Dear god, this man was the devil. The devil of Shermer High.

Taking the heat off of me, Bender told Vernon, "Your beef's with me, not her. Leave her out of your detention give aways."

"Are you through?" The vice principal asked, giving Bender a cold pointed look.

While crossing his arms over his chest, Bender stared down Vernon. "No."

"I'm doing society a favor."

"So." My friend shrugged, actin' as if he didn't give a fuck.

"I've got you for the rest of your natural born life." Dear god, our vice principal was on some demented power kick. He needed a shrink; pronto.

"Calm down, Sir. Wouldn't want to get apoplexy over giving Bender detentions." I advised Vernon since he was turning red in the face and looked like his blood pressure was sky rocketing. He should get a stress test done or something, he's about to stroke out in front of my desk.

Snapping his head so fast it was like some Exorcist shit, Vernon barked, "You shut up, Hatfield, or you'll get another detention too." I just put my hands up in surrender, showing that I gave up and would be quiet. Looking at both me and Bender, the power-hungry Vernon remarked, "Watch your step or you'll get another one." With a sinister look plaster on his face he asked, "Do you want another one."

"No." I answered while at the same time Bender just shrugged and said, "Yes."

Snapping his fingers and pointing between us, he announced, "You got it. Both of you, another detention."

"Cut it out." Claire ordered in a shriek while spinning in her chair to give me and Bender dirty looks.

"You through?" Vernon asked the bad boy next to me, whether he was serious or not I couldn't tell. His voice didn't give way to any hints or mockery, but with this dickhead…

"Not even close, bud." Bender sneered, pushing Vernon's buttons.

"That's another right there."

"You really think I give a shit?" Bender scoffed, one of his brows arched up challengingly at our vice principal.

"I don't, I ran out of 'em to give." I honestly scoffed, feeling bored and tired of the detention handout game.

"That's it, another for the both of you." Vernon barked before asking, "You through?" Before Bender could bust Vernon's balls, the man asked, "How many is that?", since he lost track of the ungodly amount of Saturday detentions that he was giving out like Halloween candy.

"It's seven, plus the one from when he made the Barry Manilow remark. Oh, and she's got five." Brian told Vernon after using his hands to count out the proper number of detentions me and Bender had.

"Eight for you, Bender, and five for you, Hatfield."

"Excuse me, Sir, it's seven." Brain said, trying to correct our power-hungry vice principal from hell.

Vernon looked at Brian while snapping, "Shut up, Pee-Wee." Brian just clamped his mouth shut and sunk in his seat. Turning his attention back to me and Bender, Vernon made a bull sign with his hand while telling us, "Your mine, Bender and Gertrude. For two months I got'cha, I got'cha."

Oh, lucky us…

"What can I say, I'm thrilled." Bender sarcastically told our dictator of a vice principal. I didn't say a word, just rolled my blue eyes at Vernon.

A hard look crossed over Vernon's face as he told us, "I'm sure that's what you want these people to think." Pointing his finger between us he went on to say, "Well, Bender, Hatfield, I think you two should spend more time trying to do something with yourselves and less time trying to impress people." Bender and me shared a look that screamed _'Is the douche serious? He doesn't even know us.' _He ended his little lecture with, "You might be better off." Well, I know one thing, we'd be better off if he didn't work at Shermer High. Vernon clenched his jaw before telling everyone, "That's it, I'll be right outside those doors and the next time I have to come in here I'm cracking skulls." I just rolled my eyes at him while Bender mimicked him, silently mouthing 'I'm cracking skulls'. Vernon gave us all a cold glare before leaving the library.

The door had just shut whenever Bender yelled at the top of his lungs, "Fuck you!"

Well, that went over like a led balloon. Grandpa's gonna be so pissed (hopefully at Vice Peckerwood and not me) about my detentions that'll take up pretty much my entire school year weekends.

* * *

Time was slowly ticking by and I was bored as hell. I was zoning out, my head propped on my bag, whenever I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turning my head to see what Bender wanted, I noticed that he was nudging me with his pack of Reds. "Are we even allowed to smoke in here?" I asked with an arched brow.

"Does it even matter, the door's closed."

I just shrugged and sat up before taking one of the offered cigarettes. Bender took one out of his pack and placed it into his mouth before grabbing his matches and striking a small flame up. He lit my smoke for me, which I thanked him for with a simple, "Thanks, Bender."

He just nodded his brown shaggy head at me before placing his booted foot on the table and asking me in a cool collective tone, "Wanna see something cool?"

"Sure." I nodded, taking my first long drag off my smoke.

Bender lit the toe of his boot on fire, waved the flame out of his match, and bent over slightly to use the flame dancing off his boot to light his cigarette with. As the end of his smoke smoldered with a fresh orangey-red ember, he smacked his biker-gloved hand on his booted toe and snuffed out the fire.

"Nice." I simply told him while blowing out a smoke ring.

As I smoked, I subtly looked around at my peers to see what they were doing. The weird girl was wrapping a piece of string (I think she got it from her sweatshirt) around her finger, turning it purple, while Brian was playing with his pants; placing his knitted Bears beanie over his crotch since his pants were tight from drooling and daydreaming over Claire all morning. Talk about Claire, Queenie was resting the side of her head on her hand while staring into space. Most likely she was daydreaming about a shopping trip at Neiman Marcus. Sporto, oh I mean Andy, was playing with the cord that lined the hood of his electric blue hoodie. He was pulling it back and forth to make the hood bunch up and collapse over and over again as he moved his head along to follow his hand movements.

"Dear god, we're trapped with a bunch of whack jobs." I whispered to Bender as we both blew some smoke out of our lungs.

"Mhm…" He sighed before propping his other foot onto the desk and playing air guitar.

"Can you play a real guitar?' I asked, watching Bender jam as the ash on the end of his cig grew.

Looking over his shoulder at me and pausing in his playing, he answered me with a simple, "Yea."

"My brother's a drummer in a garage band." I told Bender, causing him to just nod. "Its funny cause usually drummers don't get the chicks, but my brother's the one that's always got a new girl every night."

"Hmm, a popular drummer. Now, that is something very unheard of." Bender told me, taking a drag of his smoke and tipping the ashes carelessly on the floor.

"Well, he's a pretty boy with long golden locks so that's prolly why he's the drummer with all the chicks."

"Bet his bandmates hate that." Bender chuckled while ending his air guitar session.

"Oh, they do." I agreed with Bender, a small smirk tinting my lips. After a moment or so, I revealed the small awkward fact of, "Actually, my ex, Kace, is the lead singer for the band."

"Bet that breakup hit your brother hard."

"Not really considerin' I moved here and my ex is still in the band; still friends with Wye too."

Bender's brow rose up as he asked, "Your brother's name's Why?"

"No, his name's Wyatt IV, but he goes by Wye, W-Y-E." I answered, spelling out my bother's nickname so that Bender would know that Wye never signed his named Why. Yea, there wasn't any real nicknames for Wyatt so…

"Oh..." Bender nodded.

Taking a drag off my smoke, I hummed, "Mhm…"

Suddenly things got quiet between me and Bender. I don't know what he was thinking about, but I know what I was thinking about. Memories of my time with Kace flooded my mind. God, I would get myself wrapped up into him. Hell, he's the reason I'm even in this hellhole called Shermer High.

* * *

Everyone was napping whenever Vernon shouted, "Wake up!" Shit, he would come into the library and disturb everyone's peaceful nap. "Who has to go the lavatory?" He asked, causing all of us to raise our hands. "Come on, let's go." Vernon snapped his fingers. Silently, we sat up (a bit groggily) and blinked to get our bearings. "I want two single file lines, one for girls and one for boys." He told us as he all stood up from our desks. Dear god, does he think we're in kindergarten or something?

Without a word, we complied to his line up rule. In front was Claire and Andy, behind them were me and Bender, and last, but not least, Brian and the weird girl were behind us. Quietly, we followed Vernon out of the library and down the hall to the bathrooms.

Without a word, everyone went inside of their assigned bathroom. While me and Claire just picked a random stall to use, the weird girl was standing flush against the wall studying the row of stalls. Oh god, art class girl is nutty. Who the hell just stares at bathroom stalls for? Just go inside of one, sheesh.

The weird girl had picked a stall when I had walked out of mine. As I went over to the sink and washed my hands, Clair was primpin' herself up. Hell, we've only been here a couple of hours and she's already powderin' her nose? God good…talk 'bout bein' a lil vain.

I didn't say a word, just turned off the facet and went over to the paper towel dispenser. I grabbed one, dried off my hands, and went back into the hall. Hell, even a bathroom break was abnormal while in detention considerin' Princess Pinkie was touchin' up makeup while the other one was most likely turnin' a stall into her new dorm room with how hard she was studyin' the rows of them.

Whenever I stepped foot into the hall, I noticed that all the boys, plus Vernon, were waitin' for us girls. I just got into line next to Bender, only to have Vernon ask, "Where's the others at?"

"Well, one's applyin' for a position at Mary Kay while the other one finally picked a stall to live in."

Vernon cut me a narrowed look. "Oh, you think you're funny huh, Hatfield? Well, remember, missy, I know why you had to transfer here and I won't think twice 'bout kicking you out of this school either if you cause trouble."

I didn't say a word, just nodded my head in understanding at Sherman High's devil.

* * *

Bender and me were perched up on the large wooden cabinets while Brian stood nearby. Andy was leaning against the wooden railing while Claire sat at her desk, turned slightly in her chair so that she could watch us. The weird girl in the far back desk was drawing something in a sketch pad. I was lightly swaying my legs, smacking the heel of my riding boots into the cabinet, while Bender was destroying a book by tearing it apart. Usually, I'd be devastated to see a book torn to shreds, but it was Molière and I hated his work so I didn't care enough to tell Bender to stop.

"That's real intelligent." Andy sarcastically told Bender.

"You're right. It's wrong to destroy literature." Bender agreed, whether it was legit or mockingly I couldn't tell, as he paused in destroying the book. Turning it to read the front cover, he sarcastically announced, "It's such fun to read and Molet really pumps my nads!"

"It's Molière" Claire told Bender in a snotty way as she fought against rolling her eyes at him.

Brian put in his two cents with, "I love his work."

"I hate his work." I revealed as Bender finished destroying the book, he was entertaining himself with; tossing the pages at Brian.

"Like you know who Moliere is." Claire scoffed in a dismissive way, as if I was some filthy illiterate peasant.

"Believe it or not, I do. I prefer Dickens myself. His most famous holiday tale A Christmas Carol to be precise." I told the stuck-up redhead, earning me a headshake from her. Snapping my fingers, I added to my favorite book list with, "Oh and then there's Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonnegut, another one of my favorites."

"Big deal, nothing to do when you're in vacancy." Bender shrugged.

"Speak for yourself." Andy snapped back, sounding over the situation of being stuck in detention with us.

"Do you think I speak for you?" Bender asked while messing around with a card catalog. "I don't even know your language." My friend reminded the jockstrap as he took some catalog cards out of their holder, tossin' them over his shoulder and onto the ground.

Andy just shook his head before looking over to Claire. "You grounded tonight?" He asked.

"I don't know. My mom said I was, but my dad said to just blow her off." Claire told Andy, causing my ears to perk up. Goddamn, what kinda parents did she have? My parents would never do shit like that. Ha, reason why I'm here in Shermer instead of back home in Mate Creek.

"Big party at Stubby's tonight. Parents are in Europe; should be pretty wild." The jock told the princess while the rest of us just listened in as if we weren't even there.

"Yea?" Claire asked, confirming that the party would be a big thing for her preppy crowd.

"Yea." Andy confirmed. "Can you go?"

"I doubt it." Claire sighed.

"Why not?" Andy pressed while Bender returned to my side.

"Cause if I do what my mother tells me not to do it's only cause my father says it's okay." Um, yea, but why is that such a problem? If she can get out of being grounded, shouldn't she just take the opportunity no matter what? Claire let out a sigh. "It's this whole total monster deal that's endless and a total drag. It's like any minute divorce." Oh, so her rich parents had marital problems? Well, that explains why she doesn't want to make any waves.

"Who do you like better, you mom or your old man?" Bender asked her.

"They're both strict." Claire replied instead of actually answering with 'mom' or 'dad'.

Bender shook his head. "No, I mean if you had to pick one to live with, who'd it be?"

"Neither, I'd live with my brother." Claire told Bender before revealing, "I mean, neither one gives a shit about me…they just use me to get back at each other…"

"Unless you're 18 you're stuck with one of your parents." I told her, poppin' her lovely bubble.

"No, I'd be able to live with whoever I want." Claire insisted as she folded her arms over her chest.

"No, Queenie, that's not how the law works." I informed her, causing everyone to look at me.

"Hmph, and how would you know anything about the law?" Queenie snippily asked me.

"I've got a few cousins that are lawyers so I think I've got a better understanding of legal matters then you do." I smugly threw back at her. Maybe here in Shermer I was low on the totem pole, but back in Mate Creek I was of the Hatfield family. One of the most revered and famous families of the Tug River Valley.

"Ever use your cousins to get you out of some pickles?" Bender curiously asked me.

"No, but my brother has." I told him, earning me a head nod.

"HA!" The weird girl loudly shouted from her spot in the back table while blowing a piece of hair out of her face.

"Shut up!" Claire ordered Allison, giving the weird girl a hard stare.

"You're just feeling sorry for yourself." Andy told Claire in a tone that portrayed that he was over her poor me act about her parents.

"If I didn't nobody else would."

"Oh boohoo. You're breaking my heart."

"Sporto." Bender called to Andy, getting his attention.

"What?" Sporto asked, giving Bender stony look.

"You get along with your parents?" Bender asked, putting the jock on the spot.

Andy looked at Bender while everyone looked at the jockstrap. Oh, I wonder if he's gonna tell the truth or give out a bullshit answer. I hope he tells the truth, but with this guy's attitude, who knows.

* * *

**I ended the chapter right before Andy answers Bender about his parents cause I didn't want this to go on and on. Anyways, hope you guys liked this chapter. **


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